Campione of the Holy Grail
by fg7dragon
Summary: Illya has not had a good life. Between losing her parents and having her lifespan shortened to mere years instead of decades to losing the last she could call family, she does not have anything left to lose... which means she has everything to gain. This time, as a Campione, a Devil King, a King of Kings!
1. Chapter 1

**DISCLAIMER:** I do not own Fate/stay night or Campione. Fate/stay night is the property of TYPE-MOON and Campione is the property of Takedzuki Jou.

 _Italics text = character thinking to themselves._

 _Underline+Italics = character communicating with telepathy_

 **Bold text = shouting**

 _ **Bold+Italcs = Casting Spell/Ability**_

 **Chapter One**

 **Campione of the Holy Grail**

Illyasviel von Einzbern was going to die.

That was not exactly news for her; she knew her days were numbered ever since her 'family', the Einzbern Clan, had begun making modifications to her body to optimize her function as a Lesser Holy Grail. In the off chance that she did not die becoming the Holy Grail during the Fifth Fuyuki Holy Grail War – which was indeed a very small chance since the War actually ended one way or another when all the Servants died and thus their souls and power ended up in her – or got killed during the fighting – which was significantly more possible, what with a Berserker Class Herakles of all Heroes guarding her – then her lifespan had been shortened so much by the modifications that she was unlikely to have as much as a year left to live after the Grail War.

What _was_ somewhat surprising was the method of her rapidly approaching death: Suicide. She did not have any reason not to do it and all the reasons in the world to go through with it.

The entire War had been a catastrophe unlike any of the four preceding it, and considering how bloody the average Grail War was, never mind the disaster that was the Fourth Grail War that culminated with the Great Fuyuki Fire… yeah, it was an achievement in that way of seeing things, if nothing else.

Nothing had gone right. Shirou was not the evil fiend that had stolen her father from her – the furthest thing from it, in fact – and her father had not abandoned her – the concealed journals and equipment she had uncovered hidden under a bounded field under a tatami mat in her father's former bedroom told her more than enough about Kiritsugu Emiya's efforts to retrieve he from the Einzbern castle, the occasional tear marks telling her more than written words ever could.

That had been a critical hit to her confidence and plan to kill Emiya Shirou in a messy way via Berserker, but rather then upset she had been relieved and more than willing to pretty much put the Grail War on hold to be able to spend her remaining time with her adopted brother.

Then, of course, fate proved to be as big of a bitch as her many memories inherited from Justeaze model homunculi had taught her, throwing a black and evil wrench in her plans in the form of the berserk Sakura Matou, or the Shadow as she was called in that form, who began essentially eating the Servants to power the corrupted Lesser Grail Zouken Matou had placed in her, and even spitting them out as corrupted versions to serve her, as she did with her dear Berserker and even her oni-chan's Saber, the later which she did not even believe possible considering Artoria Pendragon wielded **Excalibur** , the Strongest Holy Sword.

Eventually, they ended up on two sides rather than the seven Master-Servant pairs the Grail War normally consisted of.

On the one hand was Kirei Kotomine, the Church representative and Master during the Fourth Grail War; Sakura Matou who now wielded essentially infinite prana and was an avatar of Angra Mainyu, the god of evil; and Saber Alter, the Blackened King Artur.

On the other side was her oni-chan, Shirou Emiya, wielding a portion of her potential future Heroic Spirit self's power which was steadily killing him; Rin Tohsaka armed with the **Jeweled Sword** of Zelretch that her oni-chan had managed to project using her memories and Tohsaka's blueprints of the thing as a basis, as well as a Projected **Rule Breaker** that could sever the connection between Sakura and the Greater Grail; Servant Rider, Sakura's original Servant, Medusa the Gorgon; and finaly Illya herself, clothed in the Dress of Heaven she had turned Leysritt into and armed with her father's **Thompson Contender** and his remaining **Origin Bullets** which were capable of rendering magi cripples.

The plan was simple: free Sakura from Angra Mainyu with **Rule Breaker** , kill Saber Alter and Kotomine and destroy the monstrous manifestation of the Greater Grail.

The first two parts, killing Saber Alter and severing the connection between Sakura and the Greater Grail went surprisingly well. That should have warned her about what was to come. Apparently, Kotomine had also been empowered by the Grail to some extent, as Illya saw no other way for him to manage to kill Rider, after which he proceeded to kill the tired and disorientated Rin and Sakura.

At that point, the Servants within Sakura were almost instantly transferred into her, the true Lesser Grail, and had it not been for her oni-chan mechanically pulling **Avalon** from within himself and implanting it into her – Illya was quite certain that had it not been for his mind being overwhelmed by Archer's Steel and pretty much turning him into a machine, he would have collapsed at the sight of his dead lover rather than automatically take measures to limit the damage – she was certain she would have tuned into the Holy Grail then and there.

As it was, as Shirou collapsed besides her and shattered into countless tiny blade shards as without the **Shroud of Martin** and **Avalon** holding it back the Reality Marble overwhelmed him, Illya managed to stand and as the smug fake priest approached her with the intent of tossing her into the Greater Grail to facilitated Angra Mainyu's incarnation… she drew the **Thompson Contender** and put an **Origin Bullet** through his eyes that had had just enough time to widen in recognition.

Which brought her to the present, with the Greater Grail having taken the form of a gigantic humanoid monster what was approaching her, while she held the only weapon available that had the potential to destroy it: The **Jeweled Sword** , the legendary Mystic Code that had once allowed Wizard Marshal Zelretch of the Kaleidoscope to push back the Moon.

She was not pointing it at the monster before her though. No, the tip of the blade shining brightly in all the colors of the rainbow was pointed straight at her heart as she used its power to gather massive amounts of prana into said blade in preparation to unleash it all straight into her own body with the intent of turning herself into a magical bomb which would surely have enough power to vaporize the wretched thing.

Of course, doing so was almost certainly going to wipe Fuyuki off the map, but frankly she did not give a damn – she never did. She wasn't like her oni-chan who wanted to save people – him choosing Sakura over the world did not eliminate his desire to save the world, merely placing Sakura in a higher priority – and beyond the reaction of the Mages Association she had not cared too much about the regular people Sakura had killed on her feeding sprees.

No, she was doing it right now for revenge. Revenge against Angra Mainyu who was responsible for the death of her father and brother, revenge against the Grail System who doomed both her and her mother to be sacrifices, and revenge against the Einzbern as a whole who came up with the ritual in the first place. With her death, both Angra Mainyu and the entire Grail System would be destroyed, ending the Grail Wars and the ambition of the Einzbern to recover the Third Magic, the Heaven's Feel.

What Illya did not know about – though in hindsight it should have been obvious – was that she really had no idea just what the **Jeweled Sword** could do and how to properly use it. She was essentially winging it, trying to copy what she had seen Rin do when she battled Sakura's Shadow Giants. As such, while a great amount of prana was being gathered inside the blade, several times more was released in her surroundings, saturating the nearly sealed-off cavern with the power of the Kaleidoscope, adding to the already healthy amount of it left over from Rin's battle.

Which led, unknown it her, to having the Grail System begin to fulfil its true purpose, that to open a hole to Akasha. Unlike the hole that had been opened earlier before Sakura's connection to the Grail had been severed, this hole did not open in the sky above the Greater Grail. As the function of opening the hole relied on the connection to Akasha Zelretch had made for the Grail System, this time the hole, the **Cup of Heaven** , opened much wider and in an entirely different locatiion then what was traditional: namely, right under the entire cavern in which they were in, allowing the entire mountain to drop inside.

Illya was unaware of this. She knew something had happened, she knew something within her was changing, but as she was in the still magically isolated cavern and did not see the mountain dissolving into the nothingness of the Void, she chalked it to her body and Avalon reaching their limits and forced the **Jeweled Sword** to produce even more prana… and she suddenly felt it Break. With that realization, unaware that she was floating as the cavern and what little remained of the mountain around it dropped through another hole somewhere at high altitude, she stabbed the **Jeweled Sword** into her heart and released all the stored power all at once.

And then all she knew was white.

 _Netherworld_

"Oh my, oh my! For such a cute little girl, you sure like to make a big statement, don't you, Illya-chan?" an impressed female voice that was utterly unfamiliar suddenly pierced the curtain of sensory and thought deprivation that had engulfed Illya and slowly her senses began to return.

First was her hearing.

"Never before has a human caused such a big explosion – neither did a god for that matter, as far as I remember and my memory goes way back!" the young woman continued. "All the magicians in the world – hell, even the Campione and Heretic Gods themselves – must have been scared out of their minds by that!" she chuckled.

Second was her touch, letting know that was she was laying down on a straight solid surface, with the exception of her head which resting on someone's – presumably the speaking young woman's – lap.

"How in the world did you do that?" the woman continued curiously. "Hm, a sword that can draw mana from infinite parallel worlds?! And you stabbed yourself with it to become a living bomb?! What foolishness, truly you are fit to bee his daughter, alright!" the woman chided.

Third was her smell, telling her that the air was cleaner then she had ever felt and the woman on whose lap her head was resting had a pleasant flowery scent.

"Still, do you fulfil the conditions for the ritual? And while the kill was grand, was it a worthy sacrifice? Hm…?" the woman mused. "You are not entirely human… human father and… homunculus mother? Hoh, that would make her closer to being human then a Divine Ancestor, so you do qualify as a participant to the ritual indeed. Now for the sacrifice… no, Sacrifices! You have so many sealed inside you as well! Eight, plus the ugly one you were intending to kill in the first place! But are they Heretic Gods?" she mused.

Fourth was her taste, the phantom taste of her own blood being felt momentarily before fading away.

"Hm, a good number of them obviously are. The Earth Goddess Medusa. The Demigod Sétanta, Cú Chulainn. The Demigod Herakles. The granddaughter of Helios, Medea. The Demigod Gilgamesh. The Demon God Angra Mainyu. Hm, this King Arthur holds the aspects of both Steel and Dragon, how odd… but she qualifies. But the remaining two… wait, what's this? A Demon God sealed in this masked fellow's right arm? He'll do." Here the young woman paused. "The last one does not qualify however; while he holds one of the most potent aspects of Sword that I have seen and his essence is close enough, he has no legend, no myth, I'm sorry… oh, he is your adoptive brother… from a different future… timeline? Mou, time travel is always confusing! Still, I can't give you his Authority… but I suppose I allow a memento at least. One of his spells should not bother anyone… and his armor. Can't have my new daughter wake up naked in her new world!"

Finally, her sight returned allowing Illya to gaze into a white sky, with the only color existing in the young woman leaning over her. She appeared to be a slender young woman in her mid-teens with violet hair held in two ponytails by white ribbons, emerald green eyes and pointed ears decorated with red pearls. Finally, she seemed to be wearing a white dress.

Then, Illya focused on the woman's last words and spoke the first thing that crossed her mind.

"My Mama had big boobs."

It was truly a sight the way the young woman's face fell and she comically began to cry.

" **Whoaaaa! Another instant rejection! Is that it? Is my figure why they keep doing it? I know I'm a …"**

"Nearly flat." Illya _helpfully_ provided, only to gulp at the look she earned "But you look great like that!" she quickly added.

"Really?" the violet haired young woman prodded.

"Yeah, the lipstick and the earrings make you look more mature." Illya babbled.

"I would home so! I am several thousand years old, after all." The woman remarked, though it was clear she had calmed down.

"Thousands of years… who are you?" Illya asked, wide eyed and as she tried to put some distance between herself and the obvious non-human, she realized could not move anything from neck down.

"I am the All-Knowing All-Giving Woman, Pandora. And I am you new mother… well, step-mother." She allowed, having felt Illya's sentiments for her natural mother.

"When you say Pandora… you mean the Pandora with the Box from Greek Myth?" Illya asked slowly.

"It was actually more of an urn, but yes, that's me." Pandora nodded cheerfully.

"And you want to adopt me. Why?" Illya asked in disbelief.

"Well, you obviously haven't realized, but you are no longer in your world. You and that big ugly monster you were fighting dropped from a huge hole in the sky with a whole mountain." Pandora exclaimed excitedly.

At this, Illya froze.

"Did… did this hole have a black void beyond it?" Illya asked slowly.

"Yep. I think it was outside any universe. It's a miracle you came through in one piece." Pandora remarked.

"Yes. A miracle." Illya repeated mechanically as she inwardly tried to see what had happened to her.

For one, her body was gone. If she was dead as she was assuming to be – why else would she meeting gods – then that was nothing relevant. What _was_ relevant was the fact that her soul was pretty damn solid rather than a mist that barely withstood the world's attempt to dissipate it as it should. Specifically, her soul had been materialized. A feat of True Magic, the Third True Magic, the Heaven's Feel which was whole point of the Fuyuki ritual. She had apparently gained it by passing though Akasha or at least close by it.

" _And I didn't even see anything because I wasn't paying attention!"_ her inner-magus cried and screamed in shame and indignation.

Another thing of note that she noticed was her now perfect recall of the memories of not Justeaze Lizrich von Einzbern, her genetic ancestor and the core of the Grail System, but also all of the Justeaze-model homunculi that have been made and died since.

The bottom line, however, was that she had gained what the Einzbern had spent a millennium desperately seeking. By accident. She was immortal.

"I want to die." Illya said abruptly.

"What?" Pandora blinked before frowning. "You have nobody left that can be called friend or family." She spoke gently. "But, do you truly have nothing to live for? Nothing at all?"

Illya was about to utter a resolute 'yes' when she remembered. She remembered her oni-chan saying how he would like to give her a new chance at life, away from the expectations and cruelty of the Einzbern. She remembered her Papa who went to fight a war that would assuredly cost him his wife so that she would be able to live in a better world. She remembered her Mama who willingly went to her death so that Illya would not have to, to try to make the world better for her.

All those flashed through he mind before leaving her staring blankly at Pandora's knowing smile. Illya decided to not accuse the All-Knowing goddess of messing with her mind to give her a flashback.

" _This really would be a new start. And entirely new world at that. It's different than the one I came from, considering how much Pandora talks about gods… the Age of the Gods must still be happening here. That would make things better at least magecraft-wise. But still, new world or not… I'm dead, my body at least."_ Illya thought.

"Not for long, Illya-chan." Pandora spoke up, cluing her in on being able to read her thoughts. "By killing Angra Mainyu and sacrificing those inside you, you participate in my Grand Ritual."

"Ritual?" Illya tensed. The last one had not gone well.

"Simply put, when a mortal kills a Heretic God, a divine being that has descended onto the mortal world, the become my adopted children, gaining a portion of the slain god's power as well as being ascended physically and magically. Your magic reserves will be hundreds of times greater than any moral magician, your body will be much sturdier, you will be able to pick up new languages quickly, you will have a high magic resistance and will be have enhanced spiritual senses. And enhanced longevity, letting you live for centuries." She added as an afterthought.

"Quite a lot of powers." Illya commented _"Though the magic reserves and longevity boost I already have in excess already."_

"Now then, about the Divine Authorities you're about to gain… well, normally I have to tweak them to fit the personality of their new owner or limit them if they can't handle the original form… but these Noble Phantasm forms of the Authorities seem pretty well structured. You gain one for each Heretic God slain, normally, unless you have high compatibility or the deity has some bond with you and wants you to gain more than one…" here she paused and frowned "But while I will be giving you that arrogant king's treasury, I will have to remove most of the contents since they are not truly part of his legend and thus not his to have or give, regardless of what he may think."

"Okay." Illya blinked – it was not like she knew exactly had been and what will remain in the Gate of Babylon, so she would have to wait and see.

"You will be gaining the Authorities of eight Heretic Gods at the same time, an unprecedented amount both for a first timer and in general. It's truly fortunate your soul has become so strong, near divine, otherwise I would have been forced to either weaken the Authorities severely or withhold some of them altogether." Pandora remarked with a frown. "I should look into a solution for that."

Illya remained silent, thinking of how the Clock Tower would react to the news of a human / homunculus gaining not one but eight Noble Phantasms. Idly, she wondered how many Sealing Designation worthy stunts she will be pulling from now on.

" _ **I, Pandora, the witch who brought forth all the disasters and a shred of hope, do declare this child to be my new son.**_ _ **Let everyone present grant their blessing and their hatred to this child! The seventh Campione—possessing the destiny of the youngest devil king, please bestow the sacred spell words upon this child!"**_ Pandora began to chant.

"…I'm actually eighteen." Illya muttered.

But she was ignored as from the white background voices, screams and roars were heard.

" _ **By the black art that I and Epimetheus left behind this is the sacred birth of an illegitimate child, shrouded in darkness, born of a fool and a witch. A secret of usurpation made possible through the sacrifice of a god."**_ Pandora continued. _**"I, the all-giving woman Pandora, declare that you shall be reborn as a Campione. The Godslayer, the King of Kings, the Campione."**_ She finished and Illya felt several warm existences enter her chest before Pandora leaned down and placed a kiss on her brow, her world once more fading into white.

 _Human World_

Sometime later, Illyasviel von Einzbern awoke and took in her present state.

She was now a Magician, possessing immortality and infinite prana.

She was a Campione, possessing several powerful Noble Phantasms.

She was in a new world, and she was utterly and hopelessly alone.

For the first time in five years, Illya cried.

 _Timeskip – three days later_

Three days. That was how long she allowed herself to grieve. She had gotten up an hour after awakening at the edge of a forest and entered the nearest town she found, quickly hypnotizing her way into a hotel room before she spent the next three days drowning her grief in food and drink ordered via room service.

Now though, as she began to pull herself together, she realized she had been rather lucky that the language spoken in the city was her native German. And as she left the hotel room and began looking around town, she realized why: she was in Austria, hence why people sounded a bit different to her.

The next thing she found out was her exact location, which was near the border with Italy, a city called Hermagor.

Then, she thought about what she needed from here on and her eyes went down towards her own body and she had to cover her mouth to silence her own scream of surprise. And for a good reason.

Not only was she wearing a feminized version of Archer's outfit, armor and holy shroud – which explained why there were so many eyes on her – but she was not as she remembered herself! She no longer looked ten! True, she didn't look her actual eighteen years of age, but the thirteen or so years her body appeared to be was definitely more then she had dared to hope for in years. She actually had boobs now! Sure, they were small, an A-cup if that, but compered to before it was certainly progress.

Then, taking into account her outfit, she focused on what else had changed on her body… and went still as she realized she was pumping out the equivalent of B-rank spells worth of prana into the atmosphere unconsciously while her body was like a beacon of magical power. It was a wonder some supernatural being had not found and approached her by now, for whatever purpose!

Quickly suppressing her unconscious creation of prana by drawing on the mana from the atmosphere and mixing it with the od from her circuits, she managed to significantly lessen the cloud of prana she was giving out. It was annoying to do this considering she had trained herself extensively to be able to do it continuously and unconsciously in order to have an as large as possible reserve of prana available to support Berserker during the Grail War, but with some willpower she could curb this now useless and potentially dangerous habit.

However, it was not enough. Even without pumping out more power, she was a beacon simply by existing. Merely trying to suppress her own power would not be enough – especially considering she never learnt how since it was deemed useless to her… well, from the memories of the Justeaze homunculi, she knew _how_ , but the fact remained that it would likely not be enough especially with her amateurish attempts.

So, she had to hide her power some other way. Quickly returning to her hotel room, she began mulling over her options.

"Simply holding it in will not work. My soul is now capable of producing an infinite amount of prana; there's no way I can hold all that in." Illya mussed. "I'll need s mystic code to do it, or a bounded field… yeah, a bounded field will do for the moment while I think of an alternative." She nodded decisively.

She did not, however, get up and begin to create anchors for said bounded field. Instead, she focused inwards as she began to gather prana before unleashing it into a single pulse… creating a rather powerful bounded field around her hotel room via her Wishcraft.

As much as she hated the Einzbern, she had to admit that their Sorcery Trait was first class. By simply using a large amount of prana, they could actualize a mystery without having to go through the various otherwise necessary steps as long as they knew them and the desired end result. That was the Holy Grail. It was also one of the big reasons why the Einzbern were so desperate to regain the Heaven's Feel, as with infinite prana and an ability that could do anything as long as you used enough prana, few things would be out of their reach.

Checking her work, she was satisfied with it and turned her attention to her next problem, namely a means to remain undetected even while outside this room, particularly while moving. She quickly reached the conclusion that she needed to enchant some trinket into a Mystic Code that would function as an anchor for a bounded field that could move around the world rather than remain in a fixed point in space.

"I need some jewelry, silver or even mithril if I can get my hands on it." Illya muttered out loud.

Moments later, she looked upwards with wide eyes at the golden portal that appeared before it spat out a few dozen rings, necklaces, earrings, and bracelets on top of her head an then closing.

"That… was the **Gate of Babylon**." Illya said slowly. "Oh, right Pandora mentioned that, didn't she? Though she said she removed the stuff with legends unrelated to Gilgamesh's. I guess these things are either his original or simply were left in the **Gate** because nobody else had a claim on them… hm, I wonder what other Authorities / Noble Phantasms I got…. No, I can think about that later! For now, I need to make a way for me to walk around town without everyone and their grandma knowing about it!" she decided and began to go through the jewelry.

Eventually, she decided on a pair of mithril earrings shaped as leaves, dismissing the rest causing them to fade into golden motes of light back into the **Gate**. Without further ado, she gathered several times as much prana as before and poured it into her Wishcraft as she anchored a permanent bounded field onto the two earrings, that would be able to completely hide her magical presence at the price of draining the prana her body naturally released into the atmosphere – thus a perfect tool for her who needed to put her excessive prana aura to good use.

Before she put them on, she checked them one final time with Structural Analysis… and froze as far more information than expected flowed into her brain. Not only the basic information she had expected, but scarily detailed data such as the concept of creation, basic structure, composition material, the skill of its making, the accumulated experience, accumulated history and manufacturing process...

"Tracing!" Illya whispered in realization, remembering how Pandora had mentioned granting her a single simple spell in addition to the outfit of Archer. Examining herself, she realized that one of her Magic Circuits had been turned into a Magic Crest with just the Tracing version of Structural Analysis and Projection being imprinted.

Shaking her head, she put on the earrings which had been confirmed to be fully functional for her purposes before heading out of the room and straight towards the reception desk. She was checking out.

 _Timeskip – Two days later, Bolzano, Italy_

It had been easy for her to cross the border – she merely had to hitch a ride and hypnotize the border guards into ignoring he existence. Now in Italy, she repeated the process of renting a room at a nice hotel via hypnotism and after adding a bounded field to this one as well, just in case, she went outside the city to finally begin to test her new powers. While on the road, she had meditated on what she could feel new within her but had not dared try anything less blow up the car she was in.

Now though, after selecting an area to practice in, she set up a large bounded field over it and called upon the one Authority she had used before.

" _ **Gate of Babylon!"**_ she commanded with Gilgamesh-like conviction causing a golden portal about as large as she was tall to appear before her.

Illya had vague idea on the contents of the **Gate** , having seen the memories of Waver Velvet, the Master of Rider during the Fourth Grail War, which the Einzbern had spared no expense to obtain in the aftermath of Kiritsugu's 'betrayal'. As such, not knowing what treasures Pandora had left within and even what was already in considering how Gilgamesh was using Noble Phantasms as projectiles, she began to try calling out each and every treasure she had seen in Waver's memories.

It soon became obvious that Pandora had been quite correct in her statement that most of the treasures in the **Gate** did not belong to the King of Heroes and only a handful of Babylonian sword sand spears appeared before Illya reached the final two treasures Gilgamesh had used to defeat Iskandar. And they answered.

 **Enkidu** , the **Chains of Heaven** and **Ea** , the **Sword of Rupture**.

Looking intently at the two priceless treasures of immeasurable power, Illya was quick to realize which of them will be seeing the light of day anytime soon. **Ea** was simple too powerful, too dangerous, to be wielded at the drop of the hat and she swore to herself as she returned it to the **Gate** not to bring it out without just cause. The **Chains of Heaven** , however, would clearly see plenty of use if she ran across the Heretic Gods Pandora had mentioned.

Returning the **Chains** to the Gate, she began asking it various things from things she expected to be from Gilgamesh's time period to various kinds of valuables that may be inside. Much to her surprise, there was plenty of money of the current age, wad over wad of bills of several currencies from all over the globe making her realized Gilgamesh had not spent ten years in Fuyuki waiting for the next Grail War to start – understandable, Illya could not stand being in the presence of Kirei Kotomine for an hour, never mind a decade.

Truly, she had enough gold and other precious metals and gems to builds several mountains out of them, never mind merely buying them. She was a little disappointed, though, that there was no **Vimana** within the **Gate** as that would have been an awesome mode of transportation.

Closing the **Gate** , she focused on the feeling that reminded her of Saber… or rather feelings. One of them, however, she had a pretty good idea what it was and soon enough she was holding **Avalon** , the **Everdistant Utopia** which Shirou had implanted in her to ensure her survival. Placing it aside for the moment, she turned her attention inward and drew on another power that felt like Saber and soon enough she was holding **Excalibur** , the **Sword of Promised Victory**. Nodding in satisfaction, she drew on the last power that felt like Saber and the holy sword she was holding was wreathed in wind and became invisible.

"Avalon I already had in me, so I got **Excalibur** **and Invisible Air** from Saber." Illya nodded in satisfactions. She had been on good terms with Artoria and was not surprised the blonde had granted her a second Authority.

Returning the now invisible blade to the space from which she took it, she then re-implanted **Avalon** within herself before moving on to focus on Lancer.

A few seconds later, she was holding the blood red **Gae Bolg** and began twirling it experimentally, even as within her mind she felt that the spear could perform both the un-avoidable thrusting and army-killing throwing attacks. Nodding in satisfaction, she dismissed it and focused on her dear Berserker.

Nothing seemed to happen and Illya blinked in confusing for a few seconds before remembering what Noble Phantasm has been available to Herakles during the war. Approaching a tree, she nodded to herself and punched it with all her strength. Surprisingly, a small indent appeared which was not what she was aiming for at all, but her actual expectations were met as well: there was not even a scratch on her knuckles.

" **God Hand** , get." Illya smiled viciously. With the near impenetrable skin, regenerative and revival power and immunity gaining attributes of her new divine skin, only the strongest of attacks may harm her and even those would not work for long.

Holding out her hand as she focused on Caster, **Rule Breaker** appeared as expected before it was dismissed. Rider, however, was trickier and she soon found two accumulations of power bearing her signature. When the first she tried pulsed from her eyes, Illya was not at all surprised to see the trees before her turned to stone. **Cybele** , the **Mystic Eyes of Petrification** which were ranked as Jewel class were working great, and while overpowered and dangerous, she also had her own Mystic Eyes of Binding for a non-lethal approach.

Focusing on the other power, however, was somewhat of a letdown as while the golden bridle and whip **Bellerophon** appeared, no Pegasus followed no matter how much she tried rendering it useless until she found herself a mount.

"No wonder she gave me her **Cybele** as well. This one is pretty useless right now." Illya pouted as she dismissed the bridle and whip.

Turning her attention toward the two Servants she disliked the most, she decided to leave Avenger for last and focused on True Assassin instead. Soon enough, her right arm turned black before an orange-red light began to glow from within, the brightest being her hand up to the wrist.

" **Zabanaya, Delusional Heartbeat**." Illya murmured before dismissing the Hassan's power.

It was a tool of murder, one that worked only on humans thus useless on Heretic Gods and likely Campione as well due to their Magic Resistance, so one would think she won't be using it. Wrong. Illya had every intention of using it as soon as she met a magus that gave her an excuse to do so. After all, she was anything but squeamish regarding killing and one way to use **Delusional Heartbeat** allowed her to gain the intelligence and knowledge of a victim by extracting and devouring its heart. While cannibalism did not appeal to her at all, she could live with it once or twice considering she had to live on the wolves and other beasts Berserker killed for two weeks after her Servant's summoning before she was allowed back into the Einzbern Castle.

Finally, she called upon Angra Mainyu's power and was suddenly covered in black and red tattoos all over her body.

" **Verg Avesta,** the **False Copy of Inscribed Creation**." Illya grunted before dismissing the wound-sharing curse that she was unlikely to ever use – with **God Hand** , she was unlikely to get wounded at all… though the wounds she would be capable of receiving would certainly be worth returning in kind… "Tsk, fine, I suppose it's not _entirely_ useless." She huffed.

With her new powers largely discovered, she now turned her attention to the one thought she had been avoiding but had now ran out of excuses to.

What now?

Right, she accepted the chance to live in order to honor her family's wishes, but what to do? What to live for?

The standard magus answer would be to find a way to reach Akasha, but she had been there, done that, got a True Magic as a souvenir.

Maybe try to fulfil the ambitions of her family? Be a super hero like her Papa and Oni-chan? She _could_ do it, hell she was better equipped than either of them had been and she didn't have to worry as much about getting killed in the process… but there was also the fact that she could not bring herself to care about saving people as much as a proper super hero should. After all, after losing everyone she held dear, why should she care about some nameless humans needing saving?

No, neither of those ideas really appeal to her though she may try the second just for the hell of it.

" _What do_ I _want?"_ Illya thought as she sat down leaning against a tree. _"What's missing from my life… other than family and friends?"_ she briefly grimaced. _"Let's see… I grew up in the Einzbern castle, was repeatedly experimented on the make me into a better Lesser Grail… then I summoned Berserker and was sent to die one way or another in the War… Damn, I need a life, never mind what's missing from it!"_ Illya rubbed her temples in irritation. "Fun. Entertainment. That's what I'm missing. I spent nearly my whole life being a lab rat for the Einzbern. I never saw any of the world besides the castle and Fuyuki… I should go on a world tour, see what this world has to offer… I should say that I could learn how it's different from my old world, but with how little I knew about that… and I need some company, since talking to myself isn't healthy." She grimaced. "Now then, where to start?" she muttered. "I'm in Italy… so I should go to Rome! It should be easy! All roads lead to Rome and all that!" she decided, nodding to herself in satisfaction.

 **A.N.: Yep, another Campione Crossover. One with Fate/stay night of all series… yeah, not that original, I know. Still, nearly all of them have Shirou or EMIYA as the main character and as badass he can be, raining down dozens or hundreds of powerful weapons on his enemies' heads, it's been overdone and only a handful of authors have done it right, with even fewer keeping said stories alive.**

 **Now Illya, on the other hand, has potential. I admit, my first instinct had been to use the Illya from the Kaleid Liner series, but after some consideration I realized it would be kind of boring once the novelty wore off. Illya using the powers of the legendary figures she killed? That's pretty much what happens in the two seasons of Kaleid Liner canon. Yeah, the similarity would allow her to adapt easier to being a Campione, but beyond that, what? She would still be a ten-year-old girl who just got super powers and can't even begin to realize the magnitude of the mess she's in… just like canon.**

 **So no, while potentially more amusing – especially with Kaleidostick Ruby around – it would still mean I'm throwing a preteen at Heretic Gods. And while I've been told I have a cruel streak when bashing some characters, I'm not planning on making this a bashing fic. So no go.**

 **Then I ran across a relatively new story in this section, the Loli Campione, with a Fate/stay night Heaven's Feel Illya taking one for the team to blast the Grail to smithereens and becoming a Campione in the process with a Holy Grail-related Authority. That's a premise I can work with.**

 **That being said, there will be no Holy Grail Authority here, as you have noticed, and the take on the situation is significantly darker, with Illya having lost everyone and willing to blow all of Fuyuki up, even all of Japan if that was what it took, to destroy the target of her hatred. This Illya will not be as childish – not all the time, at least – and with the Justeaze homunculi series memories she won't be as helpless either. She also won't have raining Noble Phantasms from the Gate of Babylon to fall back on in a pinch, but I will compensate for the loss of tens of thousands or more Noble Phantasms… somehow.**

 **For now, here is the list of Authorities Illya currently has, and from whom:**

 **King Arthur – Excalibur & Invisible Air (Avalon as a Divine Relic rather than an Authority)**

 **Cú Chulainn – Gae Bolg**

 **Gilgamesh – Gate of Babylon (With Ea and Enkidu still in it)**

 **Medusa – Cybele and Bellerophon (The later which is useless without a mount)**

 **Medea – Rule Breaker**

 **Herakles – God Hand**

 **Hassan-i-Sabbah / Demon God Shayṭān – Zabaniya: Delusional Heartbeat**

 **Angra Mainyu – Verg Avesta**

 **Now, as for Illya becoming a True Magician of the Heaven's Feel… frankly, it won't play a large role in the story. Let's be honest here, Illya already had monstrous reserves on par with Divine Ancestors in the Campione world, and through becoming a Campione those reserves would have increased hundredfold or more. So, the Heaven's Feel does not really help there. No, what I needed it for was so that Illya could be able to handle gaining such a large number of Authorities at the same time… that and there to be some consequence of unknowingly falling the hole to Akasha made by the Greater Grail. And let's face it, achieving the True Magic that grants immortality by accident while committing suicide? I just HAD to do it.**

 **As for her Wishcraft… a lot of people believe that the Einzbern are totally crazy with how desperate they are to regain the Third Magic. What they don't seem to realize is that with the Third Magic powering their Wishcraft, the Einzbern could achieve pretty much anything within the boundaries of the world. So even if it would not be able to directly get them to Akasha, it could help them along the way. And now Illya has it, and with the Age of the Gods not having ended in this world, Gaia's rejection of magecraft is insignificant. Think on that.**

 **It goes without saying that this will be an OP Illya story, but I'll try not to make it** _ **that**_ **obvious at all times.**

 **On a different note, Merry Christmas everyone!**


	2. Chapter 2

**DISCLAIMER:** I do not own Fate/stay night or Campione. Fate/stay night is the property of TYPE-MOON and Campione is the property of Takedzuki Jou.

 _Italics text = character thinking to themselves._

 _Underline+Italics = character communicating with telepathy_

 **Bold text = shouting**

 _ **Bold+Italcs = Casting Spell/Ability**_

 **Chapter Two**

 **When in Rome**

As Illya found out, not quite all roads lead to Rome, but getting on a bus with that destination would get you there. Unfortunately, she got there rather late in the evening so sightseeing would have to wait for the next day. So, she did the next best thing and ordered a few Italian specialties for dinner such as pasta, leaving pizza for the next day.

On the first day of her sightseeing, she managed to visit the National Museum of Rome, the Piazza Navona, the Compo de' Fiori and the Pantheon. And the very first thing that she noticed upon entering the museum was that at least half of the exhibits were fake. Good fakes that could pass the examination of perhaps all history experts, but to her when using _**Tracing**_ , it was clear as day. And after some consideration on what exhibits were fake, she even understood why.

And in hindsight it should have been expected that a good chunk of the artifacts connected to the divine would not be available for public viewing. After all, unlike her home world, here the Age of the Gods had never ended despite society appearing to be the same at least on the surface. So the possibility of various artifacts related to gods and heroes bearing various enchantments was quite high thus there was no wonder the local mage associations replaced them with fakes, convincing ones at that. Truth be told, they were so well made that Illya had an inkling that without her _**Tracing**_ to tell her just how old the fakes were and their how they were made, she might have overlooked it.

One thing she was sure of, though: not only were there indeed magi in this world, but their earth molding magics were nearly on par with Einzbern alchemy considering the quality of the replicated exhibits.

Fakes or not, she still took hundreds of photos everywhere she went with her new and very expensive digital camera, which she bought with some help from a nice old man who offered to help her… and who had by now clit his own throat after neutering himself in some dark alley.

She may look young and be rather sheltered, but she could recognize a creepy old pedophile just as well as any eighteen-year-old.

She also took the chance to finaly try pizza… before declaring it the food of the gods and making the executive decision of making it an integral part of her diet, already making plans to stash large quantities of pizza in her **Gate of Babylon** for unfortunate times when she can't find a place to buy it.

And as it was quite warm outside being the beginning of summer, she had the opportunity to try ice cream or gelato as it was called in Italy, something she had been looking forward to for a long time but with the always cold weather around the Einzbern castle and the Grail War taking place during the winter, she had not had the chance before.

Her second day in Rome she visited the Piazza di Spagna and the Spanish Steps, the Trevi Fountain, the Quirinale Palace and the Capuchin Crypt, once more noticing that some supposedly ancient statues were fakes created through magic… with the exception of the last location, that is.

The Capuchin Crypt radiated magic, each and every bone being infused with a healthy dose of prana. From what she could tell the soil itself was radiating power and after being told by a guide that said soil had been brought from Jerusalem she understood: even back home where the Age of the Gods had ended, the Church held immense power, being one of the great three power blocks along with the Mages Association and the 27 Dead Apostle Ancestors.

Quite a few of the people present had eyed her with either curiosity or surprise, not expecting a child to be interested in such macabre sights, a girl at that, but Illya had seen worse. Long-deceased corpses didn't come close to the recycling chamber where the Einzbern homunculi were thrown once they were no longer deemed useful for one reason or another, some of them not even dead yet before the ether that made up a significant portion of their bodies was harvested.,

It was with such thoughts in mind when Illya headed back towards her hotel that evening, and as her mind wandered she did not notice when the eyes of the three-faced statue in the crossroads she had grazed as she was walking away from lit up, all six of them, before being engulfed in pillar of divine power that actually drew her attention and put her on guard.

"I have sensed it… the touch of the grave…" a female spoke softly as the lightshow ended leaving behind a tall dark-haired woman with red eyes wearing fancy ancient roman toga, her eyes soon focusing on Illya as everyone else around did not seem to actually perceive her, yet despite that were mindlessly leaving the area. "You… you have desecrated the grave!" the woman hissed angrily.

"I have no idea what you're talking about." Illya quickly lied. She had plenty of ideas what this could be about, from summoning Servants in the Grail War and surviving the complete and utter destruction of her old body, to simply her earlier visit to the Capuchin Crypt.

"Do not lie to me, child!" the woman spat. "I can feel it in your aura… which you are somehow masking." The woman paused and her eyes glowed purple as she focused on Illya. **"Abomination!"** she roared suddenly **"No, abomination is too kind for one such as you! You have not only become one of that witch's bastard children, you have also dare intrude on the domain of the gods even before that! Immortality is not for you, Godslayer!"** she screamed as she unleashed massive blasts of fire and lighting from her hands that hit Illya dead on…

…to do no damage beyond her clothes which were reduced to black scorch marks on her body.

"Who in the world are you?" Illya demanded angrily, pissed off that the clothing she had spent several hours selecting had been destroyed. Sure, she had bought plenty more, but it pissed her off to have it destroyed not even a week afterwards.

"I am Hecate! And your Authority of protection shall not save you from my wrath!" the newly identified goddess declared as the earth beneath Illya turned into very soft mud, dropping her into it to her waits within moments before hardening once more. "I know much of the resilience your kind has to magic, Godslayer, so I have no illusions of being able to use my magic to end you head on." She smirked. "But what if I don't target you directly, hm?" with that sand and dirt created a twister around Illya before trapping her into a five-meter-tall glass cylinder of a meter radius with the white-haired girl at the center. Moment later, water erupted from a nearby fountain and was directed to pour into the cylinder.

" _I'm going to drown!"_ Illya realized with dread, her horror increasing as another thought hit her _"Can God Hand revive me from drowning?"_ she thought desperately as she struggled to pull out.

It was in vain, however, as the ground she was stuck in had been transmuted into a stone nearly as dense as diamond and a it was not a still active spell **Rule Breaker** would be useless here.

By now, the water had reached her neck and she was forced to take a deep breath before it went past her mouth and nose.

" _Is this it? Is this how I'm going to die?"_ Illya thought bitterly as she struggled to make her breath last longer _"After becoming a True Magician, after becoming a Campione, I'm going to_ _ **drown like a dog?**_ _"_ she wondered and anger began to burn in her. _**"Like hell!"**_ she furiously decided as her hands wrapped around a hilt that was not visible _**"**_ _ **Strike Air: Hammer of the Wind King!"**_ she mentally roared.

With that, the glass shattered and it along with the water was blasted away, obscuring Hecate's view of her victim. When she was visible once more, she could be seen holding a beautiful double edged western sword with blue hilt and gold guard, whose blade was shining with divine golden light… which she thrust into the ground at her feet, unleashing a pulse of power that disintegrated the hard stone her feet had been trapped in.

"So that is the Authority you have stolen, Godslayer." Hecate said casually yet on the inside her mind was furiously trying to figure out why that blade why that blade was inspiring a feeling of horror within. The sword certainly felt familiar, yet she could not identify it quite yet…

Illya did not bother responding. This was not the Grail War where she could afford to give out snide remarks while her Berserker turned her enemies into mush. Here, she was the one fighting and she remembered overhearing her papa telling her mama how many magi went on monologues about how great they are during which he put a bullet through their heads. So, she decided to let Hecate talk as much as she wanted while Illya put her down.

Hecate was apparently aware of this as well and with a gesture from her arms the ground beneath them began to darken and from it emerged ghostly figures of ancient roman soldiers that soon gained a more solid appearance and began approaching her by the hundreds, bearing swords and spears poised to strike.

After a quick _**Tracing**_ of their weapons, Illya ignored them. Their weapons barely qualified as E-rank Noble Phantasms, so even if they were as strong as twenty men each, they were unlikely to leave as much as a scratch on her. Instead, she began focusing her Prana into **Excalibur** , causing the blade to shine brighter and brighter with golden light before thrusting it straight towards Hecate.

The Goddess of Crossroads was not idle, however, and had been on guard as soon as power began to accumulate into the blade so as soon as Illya even began to point it in her direction she teleported away to Illya's left using one of her Authorities, allowing the golden beam to pass through the space she had been… along with the couple dozen Ghost Soldiers in front of Illya and several buildings beyond Hecate's former position.

Turning her attention towards the Heretic Goddess, she gained a calculative look that Hecate did not like at all and began raining down magical attacks on her of such magnitude that would be able to overcome even the Magic Resistance of a Campione to some extent.

" _ **Bind her, Enkidu!"**_ Illya cried out from within the cloud of fire, smoke and lightning that had engulfed her, causing the assault to suddenly end.

"What?!" Hecate exclaimed as her eyes darted to what had arrested her movement and focused on the chains that has bound her entire body after erupting from still present golden portals. Trying to invoke he Authority to destroy the chains, she suddenly realized that she had not stopped her assault on Illya out of surprise – no, she had been forced to do so by the chains binding her power. "What is this?"

"The **Chains of Heaven**." Illya replied as she slowly approached the chained goddess, with every step cutting down more and more Ghost Soldiers.

"Gilgamesh? Is that who you slew?" Hecate demanded as she struggled to break the hold.

"It's useless, you know." Illya commented as she twirled the sword around, cutting though both weapons and ghostly flesh before finally stopping right in front of the bound goddess. For a moment, she considered trying to demand some answers, but the venomous look she was being given told her what the outcome would be. So, without a word, she gathered some more prana into the blade of **Excalibur** , intensifying its golden shine before stabbing Hecate straight into the heart, twisting the blade for good measure, and then watching as the Heretic Goddess broke into motes of light starting from the wound until there was nothing left for the **Chains** to hold, causing them to slacken and be drawn to the ground as gravity dictated.

Once Hecate was fully gone, Illya dismissed **Excalibur** and then the **Gate of Babylon** before focusing on projecting some clothing she could wear until she got to the hotel. She never noticed that the intensity of the **Gate's** glow had increased.

 _Timeskip – Two days later_

It had taken a while for the excitement to die down around the area she had battled Hecate in, but Illya decided it was worth the wait – she wanted a vacation and a murder attempt by some goddess was not going to ruin her fun!

That being said, she did manage to finaly gather some information on the local mage association, or rather associations as there were apparently two that had jurisdiction over Rome, **Female Wolf** and **Eagle of the Blue Sky**. Odd names, but she figured there was a story behind it.

She had gathered information via a pigeon she had caught and turned into a familiar, and learned that there were seven big mage associations in total in Italy, called the Seven Sisters, though only one other beyond the one in Rome were mentioned, the **Capital of Lilies**. Of greater importance, however, was that there was apparently a Campione who seemed to be in charge of Italy and its associations, and there were debates on whether he should be called.

So far, the general consensus was that unless the Heretic God that had manifested made its presence known once more, they would keep their mouths shut and hope for the best. Apparently, the Italian Campione was an idiot with his only redeeming trait being his power and his unmatched skill with the sword, to the point that he was called the King of Swords.

" _Pft! Oni-chan and Archer deserved that title more."_ Illya thought as she left the Via Sacra around early afternoon. She had started her sightseeing earlier than usual today with the Papal Basilica of Saint Mary Major, followed by the Domus Aurea, the Colosseum, the Arch of Constantine, Palatino Hill and most recently the Via Sacra and was now on a bus on the way to the Roman Forum.

She had taken some more precautions, however, and had created another Mystic Code meant to help her slip notice, this one granting her something akin to a D-rank Presence Concealment of an Assassin Class Servant. It did not make her invisible or anything, but it did allow her to slip notice unless someone was looking for her specifically. Still, it was a nice shawl.

About an hour and a half later, after a pasta lunch, Illya began touring the Roman Forum. Not that she was following the guides like the group she had entered the area with. She had quickly grown bored as well as annoyed when her _**Tracing**_ was providing a much more accurate and complete story about pretty much the guides showed them.

Soon enough she was walking past the Arch of Severus and by some ruins that she had yet to identify using _**Tracing**_ when suddenly something from above collapsed on her, forcing her to her knees.

"What the hell?" Illya exclaimed.

"Hoh, looks like I've caught myself a Godslayer." A gruff male voice said mockingly and looking up through the golden net covering her, she saw a large male wearing ancient roman clothing, holding a large hammer in one of his overly muscular arms.

Focusing and the hammer, Illya used _**Tracing**_ and suddenly knew who she was dealing with.

"Hephaestus." Illya grimaced. Of all the gods, she had to run into one of the smart ones. Why couldn't she get arrogant blowhards that she could blast during their monologues?

"I go be Vulcan in this land, but yes, that is my name also." The god smirked. "How does it feel, Godslayer, to be bound yourself?" he taunted.

"…You were watching." Illya's eyes narrowed as her heart began to beat rapidly. _"Not good."_

"Aye. So, I know that directly attacking you is useless. But indirectly is another matter. You seemed to have trouble with the idea of drowning in water, so let us see if you react the same to drowning in lava, hm?" Vulcan cruelly suggested as his hammer was lit in flames.

"You're making a volcano? Here?" Illya exclaimed. "Are you out of your mind? Thousands will die!"

"What of it? This is where my temple was, after all." Vulcan shrugged.

"Like hell!" Illya spat as she summoned **Excalibur** to cut through the net… with no results, the blade not making as much as a scratch on the net.

"It is useless. My **Golden Net** will not allow you to escape. While it may not suppress divine power like your chains, nothing can escape it. It also prevents you from summoning your Authorities outside its boundaries, so don't bother calling for your **Chains of Heaven**." Vulcan smiled at her efforts.

"Impossible?" Illya glared at the Heretic God that had stopped before her and was towering over her kneeling form. "I'm not limited by such things!"

"Yes, yes, Campione shatter boundaries of common sense and reality, I know." He waved her off. "Shame you won't live long enough to even get to try."

"That so?" Illya asked mockingly as she dismissed **Excalibur** and instead a crimson spear radiating bloodlust appeared in her grasp, already pointed towards the Heretic God. _**"Gae Bolg!"**_ she called out as she thrust it towards Vulcan.

One moment Vulcan was fine, the next the crimson spear had pierced his heart.

"W-What?" Vulcan gurgled as he dropped to his knees, blood coming from his mouth.

"Guess your fancy net does not cover reversal of causality." Illya grinned as the **Golden Net** faded away, apparently requiring a certain amount of the god's focus.

Her smile was wiped away when Vulcan swung the flaming hammer and the let go, allowing it fly and hit the rising Illya in the gut… and _burn through_ to exit out her back.

"Did you think…" Vulcan began as he pushed himself to stand "that a single cursed wound will end me? I have forged countless such arms. I know how to deal with their powers! If you die, the curse will end…" he paused to stared at the golden light that engulfed Illya's wound for a couple seconds before fading to healthy flesh.

"Then you'll have to wait a really long time. Didn't you hear what Hecate said?" Illya asked as she pushed herself to her feet even as several golden portals opened behind Vulcan and shot a couple dozen or so Babylonian spears into his body. "I'm immortal. Goodbye, porcupine-san." She grinned as the Heretic God collapsed face-first pushing Gae Bolg even deeper into his heart wound, before breaking apart into motes of light seconds later. "To hell with Rome." Illya grimaced as she massaged her regenerated belly "And to hell with Italy!" she decided as she dismissed her active Authorities, the **Gate** and **Gae Bolg** , and proceeded to walk away.

She got fifty feet away from the site of the battle when a blonde woman with brown eyes came into view and as soon as catching sight of Illya, pointed a gun towards her. An enchanted gun, to be precise.

"Stay where you are! Put your hands where I can see them!" she commanded.

" _How does she…"_ Illya began thinking as her eyes went to her enchanted shawl… that had had a chunk of it vaporized by Vulcan's attack "Damn." She swore.

"I said put your hands up!" the woman repeated angrily.

Illya gave her a flat look before she headed straight towards the woman at a brisk pace. In response, the woman opened fire causing bullet after bullet to hit Illya's chest and exposed belly to no effect. Before she could either recharge her gun or try to escape, Illya reached her.

" _ **Zabaniya."**_ Illya uttered as her right arm turned pitch black before a crimson glow began to emanate from her hand and spread across the arm even as a black heart-shaped clump of ether formed in its grasp before she reached out and touched the woman's chest with her knuckles _**"Delusional Heartbeat!"**_ she finished and suddenly she was holding a warm and fleshy real heart, her assailant collapsing as the life left her. She was ignored by Illya however, whose attention was on the heart before, with a grimace, she raised it to her mouth and bit into it.

The hearth dissolved into red motes of light and entered Illya's mouth a moment later, making her breathe a sigh of relief that she would not have to _actually_ eat the organ. She then, before anything else, reached into the **Gate of Babylon** and pulled out a spare Concealment Shawl that replaced the damaged one she was wearing which she stored back into the **Gate** , knowing that over time the **Gate** will repair its treasures to mind condition.

Then she walked away leaving a woman dead from no readily apparent cause, avoiding the approaching mages even as she went through the knowledge she had gained from the woman. Apparently, she was a member of Panormos, a Mage Association from Sicily that was deeply tied to the Mafia. She was not a high-placed member, merely a flunky that had not even been here on orders, but her knowledge of the Supernatural, while not as complete as it might be had it come from a higher ranked member was still precious to Illya who barely knew anything at all about this world.

She now knew about Heretic Gods in general and about some in particular. How they acted, what kind of powers they had, what types there were and how they related to one another. How Steel Gods seemed to be the strongest and had a decisive advantage against Earth Mother Goddesses that embodied dragons, how Steel Gods had a certain degree of vulnerability to Fire Gods and so on. How Heretic Gods of various natures affected the very world about them when not restraining their power.

She now knew about Divine Beasts, how they were either created by Heretic Gods as servants or formed themselves from accumulations of divine power either on Earth or in the Netherworld.

She now knew about the Netherworld, the Boundary of Life and Immortality, the place where some Heretic Gods retreated to when they got tired of rampaging on Earth but were not willing to die and return to their myths.

She now knew about Grimoires, items that contain magical power and wisdom, the strongest which were made by the gods themselves for whatever reason and can even contain an Authority of said god, while the majority were weaker and were created by exceptionally powerful mages and Campione.

And she now knew about Campione, who they were, where they lived and some of their Authorities. She knew she was the Seventh and youngest, the oldest being over 300 years old while the youngest, the Italian Campione, was 21, just three years older than her.

She also knew that most of the other Campione each had a power base supporting them. Salvatore Doni had the Seven Sisters of Italy. John Pluto Smith had Sorcerous Sacrilege Investigation of the United States. Alexander Gascoigne had the Royal Arsenal of Great Britain. Luo Hao had the Holy Cult of the Five Mountains of China. The only ones who were not directly associated with at least one mage association were Madame Aisha and Sasha Dejanstahl Voban, and that was apparently because Aisha never staid in one place for too long and Voban had wiped out the local associations some centuries ago and nobody had been brave enough to try to rebuild in the Balkans, his claimed territory.

In essence, she now knew the basics of the supernatural world she had literally fallen into and understood that Campione or not, she was in over her head. And, as she turned her attention on her surroundings once more, she barely repressed the desired the look towards the sky and start swearing at the top of her voice. Because, while she was not paying attention, a massive magical presence had arrived and as it felt human with just some divinity in it, it was safe to say a Campione had arrived – and was heading straight for her.

Had it been a normal mage, she had little worry now that her Concealment Shawl was back on. She could have walked right by them and not get as much as a raised eyebrow unless they knew who they were looking for. It did not render her invisible, but it made her appear unimportant.

But this was a Campione and they were well known for being able to sense magic in objects and people so her flimsy Mystic Code would be of little use.

"Slow down, Salvatore! There is no rush! We all felt the divine presence disappear, so why don't you let these people here work on tracking it down – without you messing the place up!" a tired male voice called out.

"Ah, but you are wrong my dear Andrea! I feel someone strong still here!" a cheerful male voice shot back.

" _Damn, damn, damn!"_ Illya mentally swore as she looked around before quickly retracing her steps towards where she had been ambushed by Vulcan.

She was not fast enough, though, and by the time she went past the corpse of the mage that had shot at her, the other Campione had almost caught up.

" _I need to disappear!"_ Illya panicked… and tripped.

Seconds later, two young men, a blond and a brunet, arrived at the scene and stopped as they caught sight… of the corpse.

"Is that who you have been sensing?" the brunet in the suit, Andrea Rivera nicknamed the King's Butler, Illya recognized from the newly gained knowledge.

"No… I don't think so, at least." Salvatore Doni, the King of Swords, said with curiosity as he approached the body while he pulled a Greatsword from the cylindrical bag slung over his shoulder. Then, without further ado, slashed the chest of the corpse.

" **What are you doing?!"** Rivera yelled in shock.

"Take a look." Doni motioned at the wound with the tip of his sword.

Meanwhile, Illya was standing shock-still, staring at the two without comprehension.

" _What's going on?"_ Illya wondered. _"Why are they focusing on that when I'm right… here?"_ she trailed off as she looked down at her body… which was not there. _"What the…? What happened to my body?"_ she panicked and touched where her chest should be and sure enough it felt there. _"I'm invisible! But how…"_ she trailed off as she focused her senses on her body and grinned at what she found. _**"Invisible Air**_ _! That's right, it's a boundary field of concealment, not just a way to make Excalibur invisible and attack with wind!"_

"What _is_ that?" Rivera wondered in disgust.

"I think it replaced the heart." Doni mused. "Feels pretty dark."

"It's a curse of some sort." Rivera remarked. "Probably what killed the woman."

"Hm…" Doni mused as she began looking around before raising his sword above his head held vertically _**"**_ _ **I hereby swear, I forbid the existence of things I cannot cut!**_ _ **"**_ he chanted and activated his Authority, turning both his right arm and the sword it held bright silver, shining with divine power.

Then, without another word, swung it in Illya's direction.

The invisible white haired girl did not even have time to yelp when the wall besides her was cut in two.

"What is it? Did you sense something there?" Rivera asked, looking attentively at the wall.

"No… just a gut feeling." Doni replied as he lowered his sword and allowed the silver coating to fade.

" _This guy's bloodhound instincts will be the death of me!"_ Illya, white as a sheet thought.

Because if there was one thing she knew to be a truly terrifying threat to her, it was Salvatore Doni and his **Ripping Arm of Silver**. It allowed him to cut through anything, thus making her **God Hand** as strong as paper for all the difference it would make. What's worse, she was unsure if **God Hand** would allow her body to gain immunity to that attack as it normally should. The damage the **Ripping Arm of Silver** caused was more conceptual then physical, that was what her eyes told her as she analyzed the sword that was infused with it with her _**Tracing**_. It was the concept of **Severing** taken to the extreme, the very same concept her papa's Origin Bullets used to damage the very Magic Circuits of his targets. Illya had doubts there were many if any defenses that could withstand an attack from that Authority undamaged. Apparently, not even the invincible body of Heretic God Siegfried was able to do so, what with Doni slaying him around a year ago.

" _I need to get out of here. I need to get back to my hotel room!"_ Illya thought furiously as she pictured said room, layered with dozens of boundary fields, one enforcing the other, to prevent any sort of tracking or surveillance, magical or otherwise.

A moment, she blinked as she found herself in the very room she had been thinking of, sitting on the floor against the bed.

"The hell?" Illya blinked again and _**Traced**_ the surroundings, confirming that yes, she really was there. For a moment, she considered the possibility of being a Magician of the Kaleidoscope on top of one of the Heaven's Feel, but then dismissed it. While there was no known law of magic to prevent it, she found it unlikely to the point of it being laughable.

Then, she remembered Hecate teleporting and things started to make sense.

"Of course! I killed her, didn't I? And Pandora did say that when killing a Heretic God, a human will be reborn as a Campione and gain a portion of the god's power. It makes sense that a person who is already a Campione will be able to do the same. In fact, it's expected!" she thought on the newly gained knowledge.

Looking down, she noticed she was still under the cover of **Invisible Air** and dismissed it. While not one of the bounded fields she had put up in her room came close to matching the authority, put together they came close enough for her to afford to relax a bit.

"Then that means I just gained one from Vulcan as well." She continued that train of thought. "Oh, I hope I got the burning hammer rather than the net. Sure, it hurt a lot, but it's strong enough to go through **God Hand** so it's definitely worth it. I already have the **Chains of Heaven** to bind enemies."

With that she sat down at the edge of her bed and was about to turn her attention inwards when she realized something: she was in a very flammable hotel room so if she summoned a fire hot enough to burn through her **God Hand** … yeah, bad idea. Instead, she thought back to the place she had first begun exploring her Authorities in and tried to replicate her earlier feat of teleportation. It took her a few tries, but on the fourth she found herself sitting on the forest floor.

Nodding to herself, she put up a few powerful concealment bounded fields… and then a couple that would prevent fire from spreading past a certain limit, just in case. Only after that did she begin meditating in an attempt to discover her new Authorities. Soon enough, she had identified the ones she already knew were there and then moved on to the new ones…

"What in the world…?" Illya whispered in shock.

She had expected to find two unfamiliar concentrations of power. Pandora has said so quite clearly: unless the Heretic God willed it or the Campione had a very high affinity for it, only one Authority would be gained per god killed. So why? Why was she feeling not just two new Authorities… but a number larger than her original ones?

Shaking her head and sharpening her senses, she focused on the new group of concentrations of divine power and after a while she noticed something she considered odd. While all of them were new and carried a foreign power, all but two of them were also slightly infused with a power she was already familiar with…

"The **Gate of Babylon**?" Illya frowned at this. "So it was thanks to the **Gate** that I got extra Authorities? Why? I mean, the **Gate** is just a storage dimension. It's filled with things Gilgamesh… took… from enemies… he defeated." She trailed off, her eyes widening in realization. It took her a minute for the comprehension to truly sink in, as which point she summoned one of the golden portals and told it in a half-serious half-deadpan tone "You are, even when emptied of nearly all your treasures, the most broken ability. Ever."

After a few more minutes of meditation to refocus in her new spoils of battle, she turned her attention first on the one Authority from Hecate that did not bear the **Gate's** signature.

" **Far-Reach** , an Authority that renders distances null." Illya whispered as she interpreted what she could feel from it. "This must be how I can teleport." She mused. "I wonder though…" she looked around and focused on a pebble a few meters away before holding her hand out and clenching it… to find the pebble now within her grasp. A thought later and it was gone, falling a dozen meters away. "So I can teleport things to and away from me. How about from one point to another that is not me?" she thought as she turned her attention to a branch a few feet on her right… and kept staring at it insistently for over a minute before sighing as she gave up. "Okay, so teleportation only to and from my position." She concluded.

She then focused on the power she gained from Vulcan without help from the **Gate**.

" **God Forge** , an Authority that allows the creation of magical and even divine tools from otherwise ordinary materials." Illya interpreted the Authority. "I didn't see him use that." She mused as she followed her instincts and held her hand out as she willed the Authority to manifest, only to pause when she felt something more was needed and focusing on the **God Forge** she felt words reaching her lips. _**"I strike while the iron is hot, as the bellows blow, with the flames of Heaven and the metal of Earth. I forge a new treasure worthy of the gods themselves!"**_ she uttered and in her hand the same hammer Vulcan had used appeared, though resized to fit her grip. Looking around, she picked up a rock and after a few moments of consideration she placed it down in front of her and channeled her prana into the hammer before bringing it down on the rock.

A burst of red light and red flames followed and as Illya lifted the hammer, she smiled as the ordinary stone had become an ornate blue gemstone socketed in a silver ring.

"Success!" Illya grinned as she picked up the ring and inspected it before storing it away in the **Gate**.

Dismissing the hemmer, she sat down and took a meditative position once more as she attempted to tap into her other new Authorities. Unseen by her, crimson tattoos in the form of lines on her torso and upper arms appeared under her cloths even as she tapped into the first of the many Authorities the **Gate of Babylon** had taken from Hecate and Vulcan.

 **A.N.: Heh, I promised to compensate for nearly emptying the Gate of Babylon, but I doubt this was what any of you had in mind, right? The extra Authorities shall be revealed later on, either as she uses them or in a bulk. Either way, I'm keeping you all in suspense until then.**

 **I'm sure you're wondering why Illya is essentially running away. The answer is quite simple: she doesn't know how to deal with this. Her fighting experience is pretty much resumed to cheering Berserker on from the sidelines and that one last battle of the Grail War when she got a lucky shot on Kotomine and then committed suicide. So yeah, not quite something to replicate in the situations she now finds herself in.**

 **Here's the Authorities Illya has that I've shown so far:**

 **King Arthur – Excalibur & Invisible Air**

 **Cú Chulainn – Gae Bolg**

 **Gilgamesh – Gate of Babylon**

 **Medusa – Cybele and Bellerophon**

 **Medea – Rule Breaker**

 **Herakles – God Hand**

 **Hassan-i-Sabbah / Demon God Shayṭān – Zabaniya: Delusional Heartbeat**

 **Angra Mainyu – Verg Avesta**

 **Hecate / Trivia – Far-Reach**

 **Hephaesteus / Vulcan – God Forge**


	3. Chapter 3

**DISCLAIMER:** I do not own Fate/stay night or Campione. Fate/stay night is the property of TYPE-MOON and Campione is the property of Takedzuki Jou.

 _Italics text = character thinking to themselves._

 _Underline+Italics = character communicating with telepathy_

 **Bold text = shouting**

 _ **Bold+Italcs = Casting Spell/Ability**_

 **Chapter Three**

 **Help Wanted**

The past four months had been busy for Illya. As soon as she had finished uncovering her new Authorities the night after she had slain Vulcan, she had returned to her hotel room, packed all her belongings and taken a plane to Germany – while invisible, of course, otherwise it would have been suspicious… though she did deprive a couple of people of their tickets and knocked them out to ensure she would have a place to sit comfortably in on the plane. First class, of course.

Obviously, she was not going to Germany because her memories with the Einzbern made her fell all warm and cuddly inside. No, she was going there for two reasons.

Firstly, she was familiar to an extent with the place, having lived there all her life – a parallel version of it, perhaps, but the point stood. She knew the language. She was familiar to an extent with the behavior of the people so she could fit in better. And she had confirmed via the internet and some satellite footage that the region where the Einzbern Castle existed in her world was barren. In other words, it was the perfect place for her to put up some heavy duty bounded fields over a large plot of land and go all out in trying out her Authorities without worry that someone may happen to come across her.

The second reason was that no Campione had claimed Germany as their territory. While, yes, they may go there if word reached them about the presence of a Heretic God or Divine Beast, the fact remained that Voban lived in the Balkans, mostly Hungary, Luo Hao in China, Doni in Italy, Smith in America and Gascoigne in Britain. So as long as she didn't make too much noise, she was home free as far as they were concerned.

And the very first thing she had done after using up her entire obscene prana capacity – which was rapidly recharged – putting up an array of bounded fields that would earn her a nod of respect from a Caster Class Servant was to use up her entire restored prana capacity in one go with **God Forge** to make herself a new, superior, pair of earrings meant to hide her magical and divine presence because, quite frankly, while she was proud of her first attempt it was no divine construct. Her new diamond encrusted orichalcum earrings shaped as tears ensured that not even touching an object will leave a trace of her magic unless she wanted to, with their only weakness being that she would stand out like the sun for those capable of perceiving magical energy through sight should they have a direct line of sight to her.

Coincidentally, that was when she learnt that **God Forge** had limits in how powerful an item – or items – it could make in a period of time and she had exhausted it. It took a week for it to recover fully, at which point Illya went and exhausted it again to craft herself a ruby encrusted mithril necklace that bestowed the equivalent of a B+ ranked Presence Concealment that made detection by anything but direct line of sight impossible, though it somehow ensured she did not appear on cameras which she discovered while toying with her digital camera.

Since then, she had been repeating the process, creating divine constructs that she thought might come in handy in the future and storing them in the **Gate** until needed.

Of course, that region was not suited to trying out all her Authorities. For example, **Return to Origins** was an Authority from Vulcan that rendered all technology past that of ancient Rome useless within a certain range from the caster as long as it was active, so she had had to use it in a city though she made sure to not do so over a large area as to limit the attention the disruption would cause.

Other Authorities such as **Fiery Earth** would simply draw attention that not even her bounded fields could not divert – after all, someone was bound to notice a volcano popping in Germany, if only by tracking down the source of the earthquakes. In unrelated news, a volcano had erupted and created a new island the size of Cyprus at the eastern edge of Australia's international waters.

However, the thing she had truly focused on was gaining allies – or rather, creating them.

Her first attempt had been Hecate's **Necromancer** Authority that was the crystallization of Trivia's title of Queen of Ghosts. It allowed he to do exactly what she had seen Hecate do: summon spirits of the dead and make them do her bidding. But that was it. While Illya could grant her a certain level of solidity by expending more prana, they never got solid enough to pass for living beings and her attempt to use the Heaven's Feel to materialize their souls outright disrupted the Authority. Not that it would have done much good even if that had succeeded, as apparently, the spirits were automatically dismissed at the first sunrise after their summoning so her work would have been wasted.

Her second attempt had been Vulcan's **Automaton** Authority which essentially permitted the creation of robots, humanoid or not. With it, she could create an entire army of loyal servants given enough time… but they were woefully limited. They could not do anything their creator could not, for instance, so making one and hoping it would be a five-star chef would be foolish. In addition, they could not fulfill complex instructions. And the worst part was that once their purpose had been programed during their creation, it could not be changed, nor could they be recycled to make new ones. In the end, Illya was resigned to wait until she learnt how to do things well on her own before creating any more Automatons, and proceeded to use the ones she already had as target practice.

Her third – and quickly abandoned – attempt had been Hecate's **Maker of Nymphs** originating from the legend of Trivia kidnaping young maidens and turning them into nymphs to serve her. Illya didn't even try using this Authority. Not because she was against kidnaping and brainwashing, but because the Authority required a virgin female to work and the chances of any woman knowledgeable and skilled enough to be of any use to her to still be a virgin by the time she had acquired all those skills were pretty damn slim – had she not appeared as a thirteen-year-old child, she would have tried getting laid if only to understand what all the fuss was about.

She did, however, think of a way to gain highly capably nymphs: make them out of homunculi! Of course, that first required coining said homunculi which while something she was now, thanks to Justeaze's memories, a master of, would still require time to do and more importantly a workshop to do it in. And before having a workshop, she needed a house of her own, so it would have to wait until she chose a place of residence.

Her final option had also been one she never actually tried to use after enough meditation had allowed her to know what it could do and what legend it was drawn from. Hephaestus' **Divine Life-Maker** was the manifestation of his creation of Pandora, a beautiful human woman meant to send extravagant gifts from the Earth to the gods as part of the punishment of humanity for Prometheus' theft of the secret of fire... and then she opened the evil jar, setting lose all the world's evils on the world. If that was not enough to discourage Illya, the fact that the only Pandora she had met was apparently arming humans to fight against the gods, her supposed creators, certainly did the trick and she promised herself not to attempt it without reliable backup.

Which led to her ending her training trip around mid-October rather unsatisfied and lonely… up until one evening as she was going over the various things in the **Gate of Babylon** – there was even a rejuvenating hot spring in there, apparently from the legend of Gilgamesh taking a bath right before his Herb of Immortality got stolen – to catalogue the seemingly endless treasures for when she might need to know about them when she happened across the version of Archer's armor and holy shroud that Pandora had left her with from EMIYA.

"Mou, what I wouldn't give for oni-chan or even better Archer to be here." Illya muttered wistfully as she once again examined the material the black armor was made, something she had not encountered before. "He would know how to solve all my problems. He would even know how things work in this era, unlike those stupid ghosts I can call up." She pouted. "Shame I can't summon him instead." She sighed as she stored the armor back in the **Gate** and moved on to the next item… "Wait a sec." Illya blinked, dropping the ornate ceramic cup on the bed she was laying on. "Why _can't_ I summon him? I've summoned a Servant before, haven't I? One much stronger, Greece's strongest hero even!" she realized. "It doesn't matter that there isn't a Grail System in place in this world. Grandpa Jubstacheit told me about the various attempts at a Holy Grail War around the world and while they never truly succeeded and never managed to summon more than four or five Servants since they lacked a Greater Grail System, they did summon Servants. All they needed was a Lesser Grail of sorts for the souls of the fallen Servants to end up in to make a Holy Grail. Sure, they failed to ever obtain a real Holy Grail, never mind opening a hole to Akasha, because they had lousy Lesser Grails, but I don't need to worry about that! Not only could I make a Lesser Grail as good as any the Einzbern ever did, I also don't need the Holy Grail!" she declared as she stood up, clenching her fist in determination.

One week later, she had a Lesser Grail superior to any ever used in Fuyuki that she had achieved by crafting it using **God Forge** out of materials that not even the Einzbern had access to such as gemstones filled with True Ether that had not been seen since the Age of the Gods. Another such high-capacity gemstone she had filled with her own prana to serve as the material the Servant Container will be made from, just like the Fuyuki Grail System gathered prana to prepare for both the summoning and the sustaining of the Servants during the Grail War.

And after checking one last time the magic circle drawn in platinum before her, she deemed herself ready.

Taking a glance around she nodded. She was not longer in Germany. Rather, she was in Japan, specifically where Fuyuki city would have been had it existed in this world. She was even on the approximated position of her oni-chan's house in order to achieve the maximum results of the summoning to empower her chosen Servant with Cultural Sphere aspect of the legend – which she was admittedly unsure if it would matter, what with him neither having a true established legend nor having existed in this world.

Of course, she had another reason not to remain in Germany, but she could worry about that later.

Still, every bit counts, she decided as she placed down a copy of the black armors she had _**Traced**_ from the one she had received – she knew some summonings consumed the catalyst and she was unwilling to risk it if a copy worked just as well, especially for him – without the holy shroud which would complicate the summoning due to having been worn by others before. With that, she began to chant while simultaneously flooding the Command Spells that were still part of her body even now, thanks to the Einzbern all but fusing them with her Magic Circuits.

" _ **Silver and iron to the origin. Gem and the archduke of contracts to the cornerstone. The ancestor is my great master Schweinorg.  
The alighted wind becomes a wall. The gates in the four directions close, coming from the crown, the three-forked road that leads to the kingdom circulate.  
Fill. Fill. Fill. Fill. Fill.  
Repeat every five times.  
Simply, shatter once filled.  
I announce.  
Your self is under me; my fate is in your sword.  
In accordance with the approach of the Holy Grail, if you abide by this feeling, this reason, then answer.  
Here is my oath. I am the one who becomes all the good of the world of the dead, I am the one who lays out all the evil of the world of the dead.  
You, seven heavens clad in three words of power, arrive from the ring of deterrence, O keeper of the balance!"**_

By the time she ended the incantation, the summoning circle was radiating crimson power as if attempting to match the sun in its radiance. She knew it was working though. She felt it, a resonance not unlike the one from when she summoned Berserker, only this time it was more intense, she could feel it with her whole soul, and after that realization she truly understood: she was forming a tentative connection to Akasha to pull a Heroic Spirit into a Servant container.

And with that realization came even further understanding, knowledge pouring into her mind, knowledge not her own but at the same time belonging to Illyasviel von Einzbern. It lasted but a few moments, the time it took for the Heroic Spirit to 'travel' from the Throne of Heroes, but it was enough to give her a mild headache.

Then, with one final flash of light, the prana within the summoning circle compressed into the solid form of…

" **Oh my god!"** Illya screamed in panic, eyes wide in horror. **"I've turned oni-chan into a little girl!"**

Her 'oni-chan' was amused by the exclamation.

"Hello Illya." She greeted with a grin.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" Illya apologized. "I'll fix, you right away, Shirou…"

"I'm not Shirou." her Servant snorted.

"I… come again?" Illya paused in her panicking of having screwed up a summoning that badly – such things should only happen to those named Tohsaka!

"I am not Emiya Shirou." The Servant repeated. "My name is Chloe von Einzbern. Nice to meet you, one-chan!" the dark skinned, golden-orange eyed, version of Illya wearing a feminized and quite skimpy version of EMIYA's outfit greeted with a grin.

"You're… what?" Illya blinked before holding her head in pain as certain newly-gained memories forced themselves to the forefront of her mind. "Oh. You're the sealed personality that splintered and took over the EMIYA Archer Class Card…"

"How do you know that?" Chloe blinked in surprise – this was not _her_ Illya so she figured she could troll her a bit before she had to explain herself.

"I'm a True Magician and I connected a bit to Akasha during your summoning, apparently." Illya muttered. If any of the information she just received was true, then she could trust the girl. "And I gained the memories of some of my alternates, including your Illya." She added before frowning, looking her new Servant up and down.

"What?" Chloe asked defensively.

"You're too short." Illya said flatly.

"That's _your_ fault." Chloe sniffed.

"How is it my fault?" Illya blinked.

"You're too short." Chloe shot back.

"…What?"

"When Mama and Illya stabilized my body, they partially materialized my soul. Because of the static nature of the Heroic Spirit EMIYA's soul, I would have remained stuck as an eleven-year-old. So, they somehow linked my aging with my Illya…" Chloe trailed off.

"And since you Illya isn't here and since you aging being dependent on hers is part of your legend, you automatically latched onto me to fulfil that criteria." Illya nodded slowly, the memories from that Illyasviel von Einzbern helping quite a bit despite her being an amateur at best regarding the Third Magic.

"Exactly." Chloe nodded.

"You're still too short." Illya repeated "For what I needed." She added.

"What did you summon me for anyway? I mean, I see a damn good Lesser Grail right there, but I'm not sensing a Grail System." Chloe inquired.

"Well…" Illya hesitated for a moment. On the one hand, Chloe von Einzbern seemed to be a good great potential ally. On the other hand, she could _**Trace**_ **Rule Breaker** and sever the contract between them, making Illya's inexhaustible full-body Command Seals useless. Sighing, she decided to keep an eye on her reactions to her story and act accordingly. "Well, it's like this…" she sat down.

With that, she spent the next couple hours explaining her life, making sure to point out the differences between her and the other Illya. By the end of it, Chloe had been hugging her tightly having sat down next to her near the beginning of the story.

"I see. Yeah, I understand why you decided to summon a Servant to help you out." Chloe remarked. "Okay, you can count on me!"

"What part of 'you're too short' don't you understand?" Illya grumbled, a bit exhausted from her monologue.

"The part where me being too short means I can't keep you company and help you out." Chloe said in annoyance.

"Chloe…"

"Kuro, call me Kuro."

"Kuro, I was summoning Archer-oni-chan because he's an adult. In case you haven't noticed, we both look around thirteen or so. In other words, underage. I need someone who can do stuff for me, legal stuff, like buying a house and helping me use my wealth and all that stuff." Illya sighed. "Hypnosis can only go so far. Sooner rather than later, some will notice and will cause problems."

"Oh. When you put it that way, we do look like jailbait." Kuro admitted sheepishly. "Then, go ahead and summon him." She suggested.

"I tried and got you instead! If I do it again, I'll probably summon another you!" Illya grumbled.

"That's… possible." Kuro scratched her head in thought. "Maybe a different catalyst? What did you use anyway?"

"A _**Traced**_ copy of his armor." Illya replied, pointing at said copy that had not been consumed by the summoning.

"Well, that looks fitting for a girl rather than a man." Kuro pointed out.

"Pandora modified it to fit me. I noticed it adapts to my aging as well." Illya explained.

"Then use a different catalyst." Kuro suggested.

"Such as?" Illya frowned.

In response, Kuro _**Traced**_ Kanshou and Bakuya.

"…That could work." Illya admitted as she took the married blades and analyzed them, twirling them a bit as she sympathized with their accumulated experience, before placing them down where the _**Traced**_ armor stood before she had it break down into prana.

After pulling out from the **Gate of Babylon** another gemstone she had filled with a massive amount of prana in order to use it in making the Servant Container, she began chanting once more.

" _ **Silver and iron to the origin. Gem and the archduke of contracts to the cornerstone. The ancestor is my great master Schweinorg.  
The alighted wind becomes a wall. The gates in the four directions close, coming from the crown, the three-forked road that leads to the kingdom circulate.  
Fill. Fill. Fill. Fill. Fill.  
Repeat every five times.  
Simply, shatter once filled.  
I announce.  
Your self is under me; my fate is in your sword.  
In accordance with the approach of the Holy Grail, if you abide by this feeling, this reason, then answer.  
Here is my oath. I am the one who becomes all the good of the world of the dead, I am the one who lays out all the evil of the world of the dead.  
You, seven heavens clad in three words of power, arrive from the ring of deterrence, O keeper of the balance!"**_

Once more she felt a connection to Akasha form and this time she managed to hold onto it for a while longer, allowing more information to flow into her mind and she made sure to burn it into her memory as it was, in some ways, priceless.

"Are you my master?" EMIYA asked, masking his surprise at the sight of two Illya, one of the apparently cosplaying as him.

"Hm?" Illya blinked, snapping out of her trance. "Oh, yeah. I'm your master, oni-chan." She nodded absently.

"…I'm not sensing a Grail System, despite there being a Lesser Grail right there." EMIYA frowned.

"I summoned you outside a Grail War." Illya confirmed his suspicions. "I need some help, and I think you're qualified for the job."

"That so?" EMIYA raised an eyebrow. "Any exactly why should I do that since I can't expect a prize like the Grail at the end?"

"Well, if you don't want the help then I won't force you, little brother." Illya smiled sweetly, earning a twitch from him as she turned around and began to walk away. "Come on, Kuro, let's go. I guess he's not interested in a way to escape from being Alaya's dog either." She commented.

"Hold it, let's not be hasty here!" EMIYA chuckled nervously as he all but teleported in front of Illya. "Now what was that you say about Alaya…?"

"And why exactly should I tell you since I can't expect you to do what I summoned you for?" Illya asked airily.

"What do you need me for?" EMIYA asked flatly.

"I need you to be my devoted slave, to fulfil my every whim and desire." Illya smirked evilly.

"…I'm trading one hell for another, aren't I?" EMIYA deflated.

"One of your own making, at that." Kuro added _helpfully_.

"Fine, I'll be your minion. Now tell me, how do I escape Alaya?" EMIYA demanded.

"Hm, I don't know… you could just _**Trace**_ **Rule Breaker** and run away…?" Illya mused.

"I won't! I swear! Now please…."

"Tsk, fine." Illya smirked. "It's quite simple really. You've been focusing on the wrong thing to change. It's impossible to erase your own past since killing you past self would simple create a timeline where he died."

"That… makes sense." EMIYA deflated in realization.

"What you _should_ be doing is to make sure Emiya Shirou succeeds in becoming a Heroic Spirit without contracting Alaya. Doing so would replace Counter Guardian EMIYA due to a Counter Guardian not being a Heroic Spirit in full, merely a place-holder that Alaya imposed." Illya explained.

"That… actually makes sense." EMIYA whispered before his face fell. "But how do I do that? When I die here, the chances of my memories making an impact on the original me in the Throne of Heroes are rather slim. My memories of my various summonings during the Grail War sort of meld together after a point."

"That's because you're basically reliving the same two weeks with minor changes over and over again." Illya shrugged. "Now if you were to, I don't know, spend a few years or even decades in an entirely different environment…"

"And there's the stick." EMIYA deadpanned. "How may I serve you, your majesty?" he asked sarcastically.

"Heh, how did you know I'm a King?" Illya grinned.

"…What?"

Ten minutes later, he had been give the short version story about Heretic Gods, Pandora and Campione.

"So, what kind of Authorities do you have?" EMIYA inquired.

"Well, I got **Excalibur** and **Invisible Air** from Artoria, **Cybele** and **Bellerophon** from Medusa, **Rule Breaker** from Medea, **God Hand** from Herakles, **Zabaniya: Delusional Heartbeat** from the Demon God Shayṭān sealed in Assassin's arm, **Gae Bolg** from Cú Chulainn, **Verg Avesta** from Angra Mainyu and a modified **Gate of Babylon** from Gilgamesh." Illya began.

"What's **Verg Avesta**?" EMIYA demanded.

"And how was the **Gate** modified?" Kuro added.

" **Verg Avesta** is a wound-sharing curse. As for the **Gate** , well, all the Noble Phantasms and other treasures that had legends not related to Gilgamesh were removed." Illya shrugged.

"In other words, almost all of them." EMIYA mused. "You still have **Ea** and the **Chains of Heaven** , right?" he inquired, receiving a nod. "Then I can probably replace at least half of them. Without Gaia rejecting magecraft here, my projections should be equal to the originals."

"That's one of the reasons why I chose to summon you." Illya admitted. "Without its weapons, the **Gate** is almost like an empty gun."

"True. Do you have other Authorities you need to tell us about or should we get going?" EMIYA inquired.

"Yeah, I killed three more gods since I arrived in this world." Illya nodded. "First was Hecate. I got **Far-Reach** , **Witch** , **Necromancer** , **Maker of Nymphs** , **Crossroad** , **Elixir** , **Herbs** , **Three Realms** , **Keys of Hades** and **Black Magic** from her."

"That's… a lot." Kuro blinked.

"Oh, right. I forgot to mention what I got in compensation for losing all those treasures from the **Gate**. Now, when I kill a Heretic God, I get all the Authorities they currently have just like Gilgamesh gathered his treasures from those he defeated." Illya grinned.

"That… broken." EMIYA blinked.

"So broken." Kuro echoed in a deadpan.

"Really, as broken as Unlimited Blade Works?" Illya asked flatly.

A couple of embarrassed chuckles later, Illya continued.

" **Far-Reach** lets me teleport myself as well as objects to and from me. **Witch** amplifies the potency of all my spells at least tenfold. **Necromancer** lets me summon ghosts and have them obey me until the next sunrise. **Maker of Nymphs** lets me turn virgin women into beautiful nymphs. **Crossroad** messes with a target's sense of direction, making him go left instead of right as he intended to, up instead of down and the like. **Elixir** allows me to brew magical substances at least ten times as potent as normally. **Herbs** lets be pull magical plants from fertile soil even if they should not exist there. **Three Realms** gives me a level of influence over the sky, sea and underworld, **Keys of Hades** allows me to negate and seal death-related Authorities. And **Black Magic** amplifies the power of my curses hundredfold so I plan on using it in conjunction with **Verg Avesta**." Illya paused for breath.

" **Maker of Nymphs** …" EMIYA trailed off.

"I have not used it on anyone. I plan on coining some homunculi to make nymphs out of, but I'll need a workshop for that." Illya cut him off.

"Ah." He nodded.

"Now, from Hephaestus or Vulcan as he liked to call himself I got **God Forge** , **First Flame** , **Return to Origins** , **Fiery Earth** , **Golden Throne** , **Olympus Palace** , **Golden Net** , **Automaton** , **Divine Life-Maker** and **Ambrosia**." Illya enumerated. " **God Forge** is awesome, let's me make magical and even divine constructs with the right materials and enough prana. That's how I made this Lesser Grail. Though it has limits and once used up, it takes a week to recharge. **First Flame** is fire hot enough to burn through **God Hand** like it's butter. Enough said. But has limits like **God Forge**. **Return to Origins** lets me render technology more advanced than that of Ancient Rome useless in a chosen area. **Fiery Earth** lets me do anything from conjure globs of lava to toss around to having a volcano form and erupt. Same limits as **God Forge**. **Golden Throne** is a throne that once a person had sat in, willingly or nor, then they can't get up without my permission and can't move the throne either. **Olympus Palace** is just that, a massive and extravagant Greek palace I can call into being. I can only make one per month. **Golden Net** is nasty; it can be rendered invisible and suspended in space to fall on command. Once it has fallen on someone, it will instantly grow to wrap around them fully and not allow any power to reach outside the **Net** … though I managed to use **Gae Bolg** so reversing causality and other such powers will work. **Automaton** lets me make robots, but they can't be programed to do complicated tasks nor reprogramed later, and can't do anything I can't. I've been using them as target practice. **Divine Life-Maker** could be dangerous, it would let me create a living being of divine nature out of something, like Hephaestus supposedly created Pandora out of earth, but I have not dared try it since, well, Pandora is apparently against the gods, her supposed creators, and I did not want to risk it without someone watching my back. And finally, there's **Ambrosia** which restores the one who consumes it to full health and power, as well as stops their aging if they are past their prime. I can make a dose every two weeks and I've been storing them in the **Gate**." She finished, before opening the Gate and pulling a bottle of coke, having a dry throat from all the talking.

"And the last god?" Kuro inquired, accepting an offered bottle as did EMIYA.

"Hel of the Norse Pantheon." Illya scowled. "Apparently being the Magician of the Heaven's Feel and having a materialized soul makes me some sort of aberration to gods of death, so she tried to kill me. I had to kill her twice, too. First time with **First Flame** to pretty much cleave her in half horizontally at the torso. Then she revived and I lost my temper after having to deal with her mutt, so I hit her with **Ea** when she took her dragon form as Níðhöggr."

"Ouch. I'm surprise there was enough left of her to pull an Authority out of." Kuro winced.

"Either way, I got **Changing of Seasons** , **Half-Dead** , **Garmr** , **Realm of Ice** , **Realm of Fire** , **Reaper** , **Halls of the Dead** and **Serpent of Malice**." Illya listed. " **Changing of Seasons** does just that over a chosen area and lasts depending how much prana I invest in it. **Half-Dead** is a resurrection ability that revives me after I die of something other than an instant or near-instant death. I didn't get to try it for obvious reasons." her dry tone earned a grin from Kuro. " **Garmr** is a massive ferocious wolf that I can summon. About as four stories tall. **Realm of Ice** and **Realm of Fire** let me reshape the environment either into a frozen tundra or a volcanic plain. **Reaper** lets me reap the souls of the dead and allows me to call upon them later with **Halls of the Dead** which otherwise only lets me summon spirits that have died from sickness, old age and in accidents that do not involve battle. There are limits how solid I can make them though, just like with **Necromancer**. Finally, **Serpent of Malice** lets me either summon of become myself the dragon Níðhöggr for a limited period of time. It burns a lot of prana, but damage taken in that form does not remain when I turn back. **Garmr, Reaper** and **Serpent of Malice** can only be used once every 24 hours though." Illya finished.

"Well, that's certainly…" EMIYA began.

"Oh, one last thing and this one might be important!" Illya cut him off excitedly "Since according to legend Hel was able to claim the souls of her fellow Norse Gods as well, such as Baldr, it's possible I might be able to summon ghosts of the gods I kill as well!"

"Have you tried it yet?" Kuro blinked.

"Well, no. There's no point. I would have to kill them with **Reaper** active, and I just got that from killing Hel." Illya remarked.

"Point." Kuro nodded.

"All that is certainly a lot of power to be gained in such a short period of time." EMIYA pointed out. "Too much for you to handle, I dare say. It will take you a long time to master them."

"You're telling me!" Illya exclaimed. "Most Campione don't have as many Authorities after centuries as I had to start with! As for mastering them… well, I've been thinking…"

"Oh boy…" Kuro grinned.

"Hush you!" Illya pouted. "I was thinking on mastering a set of Authorities I have some compatibility with and just learn how to properly use the others in a few situations we can think of."

"That sounds reasonable." EMIYA nodded. "Now onto other matters… when are you summoning him?"

"Eh, what do you mean?" Illya blinked.

"Come now, I know you Illya." EMIYA smirked. "While you may have wanted to summon me because I have the skills to help you fit in this world, the fact remains that there is only one Servant you would fully trust with your back."

"Berserker." Illya admitted guiltily.

"You prefer having a mad Servant watching your back? You have issues, girl." Kuro said in disbelief. "So, who is it? Lancelot, your knight in dark armor?" she teased.

"Herakles." Illya corrected.

"Herakles?" Kuro blinked before she paled, beginning to sweat heavily. "As in, 'two-and-a-half-meter tall mountain of black muscle and rage that can make weaker mortals wither away and die just by growling in their presence' Herakles?" she whimpered.

"…Yes. I take it you've met?" Illya blinked.

"Not directly, I was still inside my Illya at the time but since the seal had been broken I was sharing her experiences. It took the combined power of nine Excaliblasts to kill him!" Kuro exclaimed.

"Oh, right, they used Kaleid Install." Illya nodded as the memory came to her.

"Kaleid Install?" EMIYA asked nonplused. "Why does that sound like something Zelretch had a hand in?"

"Because they were using his Kaleidosticks Ruby and Sapphire?" Kuro pointed out.

"…You had to deal with both of those _things_?" EMIYA shuddered.

"Illya and Miyu did." Kuro corrected.

"They have my sympathies." He sighed. "So? When _are_ you summoning him?"

"Well, how does now sound?" Illya suggested. "I've already set up the summoning circle in a prime location in Greece for maximum effect. All I need now is that stone axe-sword I know you can _**Trace**_ to use as a catalyst."

"And how are we getting there?" Kuro pointed out.

"Well, I want to see if I can use **Far-Reach** to bring you to me." Illya offered. "But if that doesn't work, I can just use a Command Seal."

"You should be saving those for…" Kuro trailed off at the sight of Illya flaring her Command Seals, revealing them to be spread all over her body. "The hell?"

"The Einzbern modified me to be the perfect Master as well as the perfect Lesser Grail. These Command Seals will never be exhausted. Once one it used up, it drains on my prana until it's restored though I can limit the flow in case I need to prioritize in battle." Illya explained as she walked over to the platinum circle and with a flare of prana and Wishcraft it was turned back into the ingot it had been crafted from, which she stored in the **Gate** along with the Lesser Grail.

Without a word, she teleported herself across the world before a ruined temple in Greece that she knew it had been dedicated to Herakles – though apparently, the mages of this world lacked that knowledge as there was quite a bit of magic still present in the structure, magic they would have at least tried masking if not sealing away.

Focusing on her two Servants, she willed them to be brought to her and a moment later they popped into existence before her.

"That was… actually pleasant." EMIYA blinked.

"Nothing like the Kaleidoscope." Kuro agreed.

"If you say so." Illya said impatiently as she pulled out the Lesser Grail and set it on the ground, connecting it to the already present platinum summoning circle, before tying into the mixt a large gemstone full of prana for the creation of the Servant container.

"Here you go." EMIYA traced the stone axe-sword and placed it on the edge of the circle.

One last glance over the set-up to ensure everything was in place later, and Illya began chanting for the third time that day the same incantation.

" _ **Silver and iron to the origin. Gem and the archduke of contracts to the cornerstone. The ancestor is my great master Schweinorg.  
The alighted wind becomes a wall. The gates in the four directions close, coming from the crown, the three-forked road that leads to the kingdom circulate.  
Fill. Fill. Fill. Fill. Fill.  
Repeat every five times.  
Simply, shatter once filled.  
I announce.  
Your self is under me; my fate is in your sword.  
In accordance with the approach of the Holy Grail, if you abide by this feeling, this reason, then answer.  
Here is my oath. I am the one who becomes all the good of the world of the dead, I am the one who lays out all the evil of the world of the dead.  
You, seven heavens clad in three words of power, arrive from the ring of deterrence, O keeper of the balance!"**_

She felt it. Or rather, she did not feel it, the summoning connecting to Akasha. It tried, it reached out, but something stopped it, or rather got in the way. Yet the summoning was proceeding. She also did not feel herself connect to Akasha. She reached _something_ , but it was definitely not the same as she was not gaining any memories from her alternate selves. Rather, various legends began to pour into her mind.

And then she realized that the summoning was occurring, at which point she took a step away from the circle even as the power spiked and the Servant began to materialize.

"Something is wrong." Illya warned her companions. "I'm not feeling a connection to my Command Seals… nor to the Lesser Grail!"

Moments later, the summoning was complete and within the prana-mist that distorted the surroundings stood a massive figure, easily three meters tall, with a mane of wild black hair and muscled body that would make even the proudest body builders green with envy, wearing sandals, cloth pants tied with a rope and nothing else.

"Hoh, the human world." the figure rumbled curiously as he glanced around. "It has been some time…" he muttered before his eyes lowered to Illya who was closest to him. "It has been some time indeed…" he smirked, his expression radiating greed and lust.

" **Enkidu**." Illya snapped and before the figure could move chains erupted from the golden portals that manifested behind him and bound his form, dragging him to his knees due to his surprise. _**"Gae…**_ " Illya began speaking again and the explosion of bloodlust made the summoned being focus on the crimson spear in her hands _**"Bolg!"**_ she thrust the spear which suddenly found itself lodged deeply into his heart, the spikes ripping at it for further damage.

A few seconds of struggle later, he slumped in chains' hold.

"I messed up and summoned a Heretic God." Illya groaned in annoyance as she watched embers appear from the wound and dismissed the spear. "Oh well, the second try should work." She decided as she went over to the Lesser Grail to check it from problems while at the same time reaching into the **Gate** to draw another prana filled gem.

"Illya!" EMIYA exclaimed.

"Don't worry. Heretic Gods can't manifest again for years after they were killed, usually centuries." Illya waved him off.

"No, look!" Kuro pointed behind her.

Turning swiftly, Illya had just enough time to see the burning form of the Heretic God Herakles glow with power before her vision was occupied with a massive fist… and then her world went black for a few seconds.

Then it went bright golden for a moment before she found herself staring at the sky. She was snapped out of it, however, by the sounds of battle and standing upright she saw EMIYA and Kuro fighting Heretic Herakles… or rather retreating while trying to slow him down.

Illya was not overly surprised about this; while the two Fakers were certainly versatile, having a sword or a hundred for just about any situation, that meant little when fighting against someone who utterly outstripped them in pure specs – and that was what Heretic Herakles was doing, making it seem easy at that.

And now his skin was glowing with golden power, letting Illya know that the resistance to damage that her Berserker had had was also active.

" _Which means his resurrection ability may work eleven more times too!"_ Illya mentally groaned before getting her head in the game and after taking the situation on she reached a decision, flaring prana into her Command Seals _**"By the power of the Command Seal, EMIYA I order you to deploy your Reality Marble and hold it until I tell you otherwise!"**_ she spoke clearly as he increased the flow of prana between them.

A second later, a wave of heatless flames erupted from EMIYA engulfing everything in the area and once it faded, the four of them were in a wasteland full of blades, stuck in an eternal twilight under the massive gears in the sky.

 **A.N.: Back with another chapter, I'll be focusing on my other stories from now on for a while.**

 **Here's the Authorities Illya has that I've shown so far:**

 **King Arthur – Excalibur & Invisible Air**

 **Cú Chulainn – Gae Bolg**

 **Gilgamesh – Gate of Babylon**

 **Medusa – Cybele and Bellerophon**

 **Medea – Rule Breaker**

 **Herakles – God Hand**

 **Hassan-i-Sabbah / Demon God Shayṭān – Zabaniya: Delusional Heartbeat**

 **Angra Mainyu – Verg Avesta**

 **Hecate / Trivia – Far-Reach, Witch, Necromancer, Maker of Nymphs, Crossroad, Elixir, Herbs, Three Realms, Keys of Hades, Black Magic**

 **Hephaestus / Vulcan – God Forge, First Flame, Return to Origins, Fiery Earth, Golden Throne, Olympus Palace, Golden Net, Automaton, Divine Life-Maker, Ambrosia**

 **Hel – Changing of Seasons, Half-Dead, Garmr, Realm of Ice, Realm of Fire, Reaper, Halls of the Dead, Serpent of Malice**


	4. Chapter 4

**DISCLAIMER:** I do not own Fate/stay night or Campione. Fate/stay night is the property of TYPE-MOON and Campione is the property of Takedzuki Jou.

 _Italics text = character thinking to themselves._

 _Underline+Italics = character communicating with telepathy_

 **Bold text = shouting**

 _ **Bold+Italcs = Casting Spell/Ability**_

 **Chapter Four**

 **Learning from Mistakes and Setting up Shop**

The very first thing Illya did upon finding himself within the world of swords within Counter Guardian Emiya was to pull her divine necklace of Presence Concealment from the **Gate of Babylon** and put it on, followed by calling on **Invisible Air** to render her invisible.

Cowardly? Maybe. But against someone who was basically an overpowered version of her Berserker? That was just common sense.

Summoning Herakles of all heroes as Berserker in the Fifth Holy Grail War was not something the Einzbern had chosen lightly. There had been other powerful names thrown around, such as Karna, Arjuna, Ramesses II, Solomon, Vlad III and even Artoria Pendragon by retrieving Avalon which they were sure had been left in Shirou's care.

But Herakles won by a landslide. He was simply too skilled just taking his legend into account, overcoming every Labor the gods threw at him. Plus, he was known for his monstrous strength. And if that strength was increased further by the Berserker class… yes, they were certain he would be the strongest Servant summoned for the war.

And they were right. One on one, Berserker could have defeated any of the other Servants of the Fifth Grail war. Lancer, Caster and Assassin would not have been able to even scratch him, and while Saber, Archer and Rider had Noble Phantasms capable of taking a handful of his live in one hit, that was all they would have been able to score, what with him becoming immune to those attacks after reviving. The only reason Shirou had been able to kill him was due to him being stripped of his Noble Phantasm and have a number of his sense crippled in order for Dark Sakura to have some manner of control over him.

Of course, it turned out that it was not the Servants summoned for the Fifth Grail War were the true dangers but a Servant from the Fourth and a Master from the Fifth. And while the Einzbern might had possibly found out about Gilgamesh if they were more careful and taken precautions, Sakura came as a surprise to everyone other than Zouken, even herself.

So no, she was not going to take Heretic Herakles lightly.

Instead, she began contemplating if it was even possible to kill him at all. Because while they were in the world of swords of EMIYA, she knew that even here there were actually few weapons that could damage, never mind kill the god.

It was something she had noticed while practicing the use of her Authorities in Germany. Both **Gae Bolg** and **Excalibur** were simply stronger then then they had been when in the hands of the Hound of Ulster and the King of Knights. After carefully examining them with _**Tracing**_ , unleashing them to their full power and comparing to what she knew to be their full power from witnessing the used in the Fifth Grail War as well as **Excalibur** being used in the Fourth Grail War from the memories of Waver Velvet, she could say with complete confidence that both of them had gone up a rank, **Gae Bolg** becoming an A+ ranked demonic spear and **Excalibur** becoming an EX ranked holy sword.

This told her quite clearly that Noble Phantasms were inferior in power to their Divine Authorities counterparts. In other words, the defense granted by his golden skin Authority should be greater than her own **God Hand** by at least a full rank! After all, her **God Hand** was the combined result of all Twelve Labors and from what little she knew of heretic gods, they usually gained an Authority for each great task like one of the Twelve Labors.

In other words, Heretic Herakles had at least twelve Authorities – no, thirteen, since his revival was one as well, probably from his apotheosis legend. The one he was currently using was without a doubt a result of his Nemean Lion labor, the impenetrable pelt likely having merged with his own skin.

" _Let's make him use up those Authorities. And if I can sneak a good hit in, all the better."_ Illya decided. _"EMIYA, Kuro, do you hear me?"_

" _A little busy right now!"_ Kuro mentally yelped.

" _Yes, make it quick!"_ EMIYA added.

" _I'm going to send a few things his way to try to get him to deplete some of his Authorities. I doubt it will take much if any head off you, but take advantage of any opening you get with A ranked and above Noble Phantasms. I'm pretty sure it won't be enough, that it will take something EX-ranked to get through his skin considering he apparently has separate Authorities for each of his Twelve Labors rather than an amalgamation like_ _ **God Hand**_ _, but it's worth attempting. If I see you about to die, I'll try to teleport you to me, got it?"_ Illya delivered her instructions as quick as possible.

" _Anytime now! / Go for it!"_ came their response.

" _ **Serpent that gnaws at the roots of Yggdrasill, strike my enemies with all your malice!**_ _**Níðhöggr!"**_ Illya chanted quietly causing a massive dragon expelling a putrid aura to erupt from the ground before her before darting at Heretic Herakles. _**"Hound that Guards the Dead, Come and Kill my Enemies!**_ _**Garmr!"**_ she continued and from as similar portal a massive grey-black wolf emerged and dashed away at the same target.

A second later, Illya teleported away just to be sure, allowing her to watch from the side as her two Divine Beasts approached the Heretic God… before being intercepted.

A massive dark red Boar Divine Beast manifested and charged towards Garmr while a massive black Cerberus with burning crimson eyes dashed towards Níðhöggr.

" _This won't do."_ Illya bit her lip, before teleporting on top of the dragon's head _**"Keys that lock the realm of the dead, banish the damned before me!"**_ she chanted manifesting a golden key that she instantly pointed towards the Cerberus, causing a massive gate to appear behind it before it opened to reveal hellish flames from which chains erupted, dragging the three-headed hound within, before slamming shut and disappearing, and she dismissed the **Key of Hades**. It was too late, however, as while she was still invisible the **Key** had not been. She had been seen.

" **So that is where you are hiding, Godslayer brat!"** Herakles roared and in a burst of godlike speed he blurred from where he was fighting her two Servants to right in front of her and the dragon. **"Let me show you the power of dragon slayer!"** he declared as a white sword that seemed to have been made of a fang appeared in his hand which he raised to the sky.

Illya knew what was coming, it was the same stance that Shirou had taken when facing Berserker, so she desperately tapped into the **Crossroads** Authority.

" _ **Nine Lives: The Shooting Hundred Heads!"**_ the Heretic God declared as he brought down his blade and unleashing a hundred beams of scorching light… away from Illya and the dragon which instantly smacked him away, taking advantage of him being unbalanced by the unexpected failure.

Illya was also taking action, having activated **The Witch** which greatly increased the potency of her magic. Using that boost, she gathered in her right hand the full power of the **First Flame** for one decisive strike. Furthermore, **Invisible Air** unwrapped from around her body and compressed into a ball of swirling wind, just waiting to be unleashed.

And unleashed it was, being used to further increase the power of the **First Flame** as it shot straight at Heretic Herakles who took notice of it.

" _Too late."_ Illya grinned and a moment later Herakles was engulfed in a crimson inferno.

The seconds went by and the fire began to die down, the nature of the Authority making it the kind of fire that in exchange for incredible intensity lacks continuity. But rather than a dead or dying Heretic Herakles, what she took notice of was the charred bodies of lions and horses while emerging from under them was… a wet Herakles?

" _Is that snow?!"_ Illya wondered incredulously. _"Did he freeze himself to withstand the flames? And summoned those Divine Beasts as shields?"_

But she was shocked back to attention by what felt like a snap within herself and a bit of concentrations made her gulp.

The **Crossroads** had been broken.

"Let's try this again, shall we?" Herakles began in a quitter voice that yet still resounded strongly. _**"Nine Lives: The Shooting Hundred Heads!"**_ he declared as he swung his blade.

Moments later, he felt each and every one of the blows connect, most with the dragon but a dozen at least had hit its white haired summoner as well… and then he dropped like a rock, agony the likes of which he had never felt striking at his soul, the very core of his being. Collapsing face-first to the ground, he blearily glanced at the dissipating corpse of the dragon, where the bloodied form of the girl stood in a similar position to his… no, she was apparently in a better state, if she could even raise her hand as she did.

On her command, golden portals opened and chains erupted binding him even more tightly then before and with a curse he realized that the spiritual damage that had somehow been inflicted on him had made him lose hold of his **Nemean Shroud** Authority, rendering him once more vulnerable to damage.

He was waiting for the dark skinned white haired duo from before to arrive and finish him off when he noticed the Campione girl slowly pull a bottle from one of the portals that opened near her and take a sip from its contents.

All of the sudden, every ache in his body vanished and he understood: it was not his own pain that had crippled his body, but hers that was somehow reflected upon him – amplified, of course, as he doubted the child would have greater pain endurance then he.

Illya easily stood up, the **Ambrosia** having returned her to full health, and turned to eye Heretic Herakles. It had been a gamble, activating **Black Magic** and **Verg Avesta** at the last moment, as she knew well enough that with **Avalon** and **God Hand** healing her the spiritual damage she was cursing the god with would fade rather quickly. Indeed, she had to focus on first binding him with the **Chains of Heaven** as she actually fought the healing to make her pain worth it. She could have allowed those two regenerative powers to heal her after that, but she was simply on too much pain to care about using up a dose of **Ambrosia**.

Walking slowly towards the Heretic God suspended face-down in midair by the **Chains of Heaven** , she held her hand out calling **Excalibur** in her grip. **Ea** was also strong enough to kill him but she did not want to destroy the Reality Marble around them. In fact, **Ea** might have been strong enough to kill him even with his golden skin, but it had one limitation that prevented her from using it, just like **Excalibur** , until now: its charging time was long enough for Heretic Heracles to kill her before she could use it.

"Tell me something." Illya began as she stopped in front of the bound god "After you die, how long will it be impossible for you to return to the human world, even if summoned.

"So you wish to fight me once more?" Heretic Herakles chuckled lowly.

"No. It was never my intention to summon you in the first place." Illya replied.

"Ah, I see… so my appearance was a mistake." He sighed. "Seven years. That is the absolute minimum period of time before a god can descend into the Human World once slain, and that is if summoned by someone of extraordinary power. On our own, it would take us a century or two, perhaps more, depending on the god."

"I see, thank you." Illya smiled briefly before her hands clenched around the hilt of the golden sword above her **"EX-"** she began, takin a step forward to steady herself before bringing down the blade **"CALIBUR!"** she roared as she unleashed the full power of the blade, vaporizing Heretic Herakles and everything behind him.

And this time he staid dead, his Authorities appearing within Illya causing a relieved smile to play at her lips.

"You can drop it now, EMIYA." Illya said and a moment later the Reality Marble collapsed, leaving the three of them standing in the exact same position Illya had been in, by the platinum summoning circle.

"We should get out of here. Someone must have sense the Heretic God." EMIYA said, breathing somewhat heavily due to the strain on his Magic Circuits from maintaining the Reality Marble.

"Not just yet." Illya frowned. "If we leave now, it will be some time before we can return."

"You still want to summon Berserker?" Kuro asked incredulously.

"This time I'll do it right." Illya insisted. "If I don't feel the ritual reaching to the Throne of Heroes midway through the summoning, I'll interrupt it. But with Heretic God Herakles unable to be summoned for at least seven years, it should work fine."

"Alright, just hurry up." Kuro sighed.

Illya quickly set things up, tying her last prepared prana-filled gemstone to the circle as well as the Lesser Grail, with a newly traced stone axe-sword as the catalyst. Then she called upon the **Golden Net** Authority and suspended it in mid-air above the circle where it became invisible.

"For insurance." Illya said to the curious looks of the Servants.

" _ **Silver and iron to the origin. Gem and the archduke of contracts to the cornerstone. The ancestor is my great master Schweinorg.  
The alighted wind becomes a wall. The gates in the four directions close, coming from the crown, the three-forked road that leads to the kingdom circulate.  
Fill. Fill. Fill. Fill. Fill.  
Repeat every five times.  
Simply, shatter once filled.  
I announce.  
Your self is under me; my fate is in your sword.  
In accordance with the approach of the Holy Grail, if you abide by this feeling, this reason, then answer.  
Here is my oath. I am the one who becomes all the good of the world of the dead, I am the one who lays out all the evil of the world of the dead.**_ _**  
Yet, thou serves with thine eyes clouded in chaos.  
Thou, bound in the cage of madness. I am he who command those chains.  
You, seven heavens clad in three words of power, arrive from the ring of deterrence, O keeper of the balance!"**_

It felt right, that was what Illya felt, as she felt once more the connection to Akasha as the ritual reached into the Throne of Heroes for Herakles. Once more she gained the memories of her alternate selves, only this time she lucked out somewhat.

Oh, this Illya did not lead a better life then her up to the Grail War, but apparently this Illya entered an alliance with Caster, the Witch Medea, who told her about the taint of the Grail and together, with Caster preparing the spell and Illya providing the prana, they managed to purge the Grail System of Angra Mainyu's taint by, ironically, giving him exactly what he wanted: a body of his own.

Then Berserker killed him in a decidedly messy way, causing his soul to be sealed in a previously prepared receptacle, outside the Grail System.

From there, it was surprisingly easy to have Berserker fight on the front lines as a distraction while Caster sneaked around and used her **Rule Breaker** to steal the stronger Servants like Saber, Rider and Archer, killing both Sakura and Zouken when Caster realized the Matou's play with the Black Lesser Grail, and then using their army of Servants including Caster's own Assassin to storm the Church and kill not only Lancer and Kotomine, but Gilgamesh as well.

After that, it was merely a matter of having all the Servants other than Caster and Berserker to commit suicide via the Command Spells, just as the original Grail War was meant to be like, causing the Lesser Grail Caster had carefully extracted from Illya and replaced with an artificial heart to become a full Holy Grail, at the same time opening the Hole in the sky to Akasha, which Illya went through with some help from Caster to get there.

From there, Illya became a True Magician of the Heaven's Feel while Caster used the Holy Grail to incarnate herself, fulfilling her wish for the Grail War. Then the three of them went to Germany had took over the Einzbern in a rather bloody manner.

Ten years later, Illya and Berserker were hunting Apostle Ancestors and had the misfortune of running across Altrouge Brunestud which led to the white-haired girl's untimely death via freaking **Primate Murder**. Unlimited Prana or not, that _thing_ could kill an army before she could as much as utter a spell, Berserker or no Berserker.

Snapping back to reality in time to catch the aura of aggression Berserker was emanating just by existing.

"Welcome back, Ber-ser-ker!" Illya chirped.

 _Timeskip – one month later, Kyoto, Japan_

"This is ridiculous." EMIYA stated flatly.

"Come on, it's kinda cool." Kuro grinned.

"It's a waste of time and resources." EMIYA insisted.

"You're just jealous I can do this while you can only copy swords." Illya sniffed.

Both her Archer Class Servants gave her annoyed looks.

"Look!" Illya insisted "We already bought the place, and now we need to make use of it before those Committee people catch wind of it and begin nosing around."

Kyoto was well known as the spiritual capital of Japan. It was a very good reason, too, as most if not all the country's Ley Lines not only passed through Kyoto or its immediate surroundings, but many of them also intersected in several points across the ancient city.

And the abandoned temple they were standing before was smack on top of one such Ley Line Nexus, being the congregation point of twenty-seven Ley Lines which while above average it was not the maximum, that number being sixty-four, an obscene amount of power by any accounts… if the people in charge knew how to harness it, that is. Fact was, while the magic being used was technically the same from the Age of the Gods, the sad truth was much had been lost through time and various disasters – such as Heretic Gods – and while the magi in Illya's home world had managed to reproduce much using circuit-based magecraft, the ones here were not as lucky.

Yes, they could somewhat use the Ley Lines, but from what she could tell they were only drawing on the ambient mana the simple presence of the Ley Lines was emitting, not the mana _in_ the Ley Lines. Which meant that while the barriers feeding on the major Ley Line Nexus were currently the strongest in Japan, they were nowhere near the impenetrable shields even gods would be wary of tampering with.

Their temple, however, was abandoned. And it was for a good reason, the place was cursed, likely by some Heretic God that had been slighted in the past or such, leading to the entire area being sealed off from the rest of the world with a barrier that made regular people ignore it. It did, however, still exist on paper belonging to not the city but an old man, not a magic user himself but descended from one, his mother who had been a Hime Miko at the temple an after it had been cursed it had been transferred in her care, eventually ending up in the hands of her son – he son who took all of five minutes to be hypnotized into signing it away for a hefty sum of cash.

Signed away to one Emiya von Einzbern, older brother of Illyasviel von Einzbern and Chloe von Einzbern – the two so-called twins being mightily amused by the man's stubbornness of not being called Emiya Shirou.

Which led to them needing to make use of the placed and ward it in such a way to make it ignorable even by magi and Heretic Gods, similar to how Illya's newest pair of earrings made her. Crafted with **God Forge** from a mix of Mithril and Orichalcum as the physical regents, a handful _**Traced**_ Dagger Noble Phantasms that held the power to conceal the user's magical signature as well as a couple rubies holding True Ether and a few diamonds filled with the brim with Illya's potent prana, the end result were divine masterpieces shapes as snowflake earrings with rubies at the core and diamonds throughout on white metal.

They were beautiful beyond mortal capabilities, which made it even better that in addition to hiding Illya's magical aura utterly even to those looking right at her, they also held a minor enchantment that made themselves somewhat unnoticeable to draw less attention.

The temple, however, was not as easily hidden and even if it was, they needed to get rid of the curse before making use of it in any meaningful way.

"I agree. But you seem to be ignoring the fact that using it as it is will be harmful to us. We may have Magic Resistance, you in particular, but there are limits even to that." EMIYA pointed out firmly.

"I agree." Illya nodded.

"You do?" EMIYA blinked.

"Yep. Hence why we need to cleanse and secure the area before making use of it. And since we can't do it as well as we want to, we'll just have to get someone else to do it for us." Illya grinned.

"…I thought you said you didn't want to get into contact with the local mages for a few years yet." Kuro blinked.

"Who said anything about local mages?" Illya snorted. "These amateurs haven't been able to get rid of the curse here in nearly a century; they've chosen to abandon the temple instead."

"You want to summon another Heroic Spirit." EMIYA realized.

"A Caster Class." Kuro mused.

"One Caster in particular." Illya smirked as **Rule Breaker** materialized in her hand.

"…You are you of your mind." EMIYA said with certainty. "Of all the Heroic Spirits that qualify for Caster Class, you want to summon the Witch of Betrayal?" he asked incredulously.

"She's a Magus from the Age of the Gods." Illya said plainly. "Can you name one Heroic Spirit from that time period that would make a better Caster then her, someone who could teach me her magic?"

"Well…" EMIYA hesitated "There is _one_ Heroic Spirit from the Age of the Gods that would definitely leave her in the dust, but…"

"But?" Illya asked curiously.

"One does not summon Solomon, the King of Magic, and get away with making him do your chores." EMIYA chuckled nervously. "I'm all but certain he can end the Servant contract with just a thought, never mind merely resisting your Commands."

"So Medea it is." Illya shrugged.

"And if she turns against you?" EMIYA scowled.

"She won't." the Seventh Campione smirked. "I know her desire for the Grail, and one other she craves just as much."

The two Archer Class Servants exchanged a look and prepared for the worst.

 _Kutaisi, Georgia_

Kutaisi, the Legislative Capital of Georgia was in the past know as Aia or Aeaea, the Capital of Colchis.

It was there that Illya prepared to summon Medea, like before preparing the platinum circle, and tying to it the Lesser Grail and a prana-filled gemstone power source to form the Servant container. The Catalyst was the **Rule Breaker** in her hand.

" _ **Silver and iron to the origin. Gem and the archduke of contracts to the cornerstone. The ancestor is my great master Schweinorg.  
The alighted wind becomes a wall. The gates in the four directions close, coming from the crown, the three-forked road that leads to the kingdom circulate.  
Fill. Fill. Fill. Fill. Fill.  
Repeat every five times.  
Simply, shatter once filled.  
I announce.  
Your self is under me; my fate is in your sword.  
In accordance with the approach of the Holy Grail, if you abide by this feeling, this reason, then answer.  
Here is my oath. I am the one who becomes all the good of the world of the dead, I am the one who lays out all the evil of the world of the dead.**_ _**  
Thou with magic reaching the realm of the Gods.  
You, seven heavens clad in three words of power, arrive from the ring of deterrence, O keeper of the balance!"**_

As Illya finished the Caster-tuned summoning chant, she was not in the least surprised when instead of Medea the Heroic Spirit Medea the Heretic God was summoned. She had felt the difference during the summoning and had signaled to the others, including that currently physical Berserker, to be ready for battle.

However, it was thankfully not necessary this time.

The prana-mist had not even faded away when the **Chains of Heaven** had bound the woman, a blonde beauty with purple eyes, followed swiftly by a slash from a _**Traced**_ **Harpe** to make sure any immortality or resurrection would be out of her reach. A strike to the heart from **Gae Bolg** ended it.

Illya lay still for a few moments before relaxing as she felt a new power within her.

"Clear, I got her Authority so she's dead." She informed them.

Replacing the depleted gemstone with a new one, she repeated the chant and this time she knew it had worked. The memory download from Akasha occurred again, though this time it was rather insignificant in divergences from her own life.

"Hello Caster." Illya greeted.

"Greetings Master." Caster bowed in subservience.

"Oh, drop the act Medea. Humbleness does not suit you." Illya snorted, much to the cloaked woman's surprise.

"I see you recognize me." Medea remarked warily in a stronger voice.

"I actually chose to summon you specifically." Illya revealed. "I'll get straight to the point. We are currently in a world where the Age of the Gods never truly ended. However, due to something occurring around the time it ended in our world, or perhaps even before that, Gods can only manifest in the Human World as what is called Heretic Gods, rebelling against their myths and the changes to their legends humans had made over time, almost always causing natural disasters."

"And you want me to do something about that?" Medea asked incredulously.

"No, that's my problem." Illy corrected. "When I ended up in this world, I killed a god and due to a curse Pandora placed on the Gods here, when a mortal kills a God they gain a portion of said God's powers and are reborn with stronger bodies, magic and other traits. I'm called a Campione. The thing is, I don't know about the magic of the Age of the Gods that is still being used here, nor do I trust he people of this world yet despite Campione being feared and revered as Supreme Kings and Devil Kings."

"Hence you wish for my help." Medea mused. "Why should I help. There is no Holy Grail here."

"Because I can either materialize your soul, get you the resources to get yourself incarnated or perhaps even do it myself through my usurped powers." Illya smirked.

"Materialize my soul… You're a magician of the Heaven's Feel?" Medea exclaimed.

"I passed by Akasha before ending up in this world, and it happened." Illya shrugged. "So, what do you say?"

"Tempting, very tempting." Medea mused.

"I'll help you get revenge on Aphrodite." Illya added, earning a sharp look from the Caster. "The one of this world, at least. I doubt the one on our world is even still alive."

"Deal." Medea quickly agreed. "If you don't mind, I'll accept Materialization of the Soul, for now."

"Yeah, the boost to the Prana Capacity and Recovery will certainly help you. And it will make the already tiny burden on my reserves nonexistent." Illya nodded.

It was the same thing she had done for EMIYA and Berserker, with only Kuro remaining as she was until she was older, or until Illya's own aging stopped.

Drawing on her Magic in the same way she had done for her male Servants, something she had learnt thanks to the repeated memory downloads from her alternate selves via incursions to Akasha, Illya reached out and cupped Medea's face, causing her hood to fall back, and with a burst of prana edged with Wishcraft to ensure success, the Witch's soul was materialized.

Then, just for the hell of it and because she found Medea just as attractive as her alternate self that was allied with her did, she got to the tips of her toes and gave her a peck on the lips.

"Done!" Illya grinned at the light blush that appeared on Medea's cheeks. "Here, put these on. They should hide your large magical signature." She pulled one of the prototypes of her own earrings, shaped as leaves, from the **Gate of Babylon** , and handed them to her.

Both EMIYA and Kuro wore such a mystic code, though EMIYA's was a necklace rather than earrings.

"These are… masterfully made." Medea praised as she inspected them. "And… is this divinity I sense in them?"

"I did make them using a Divine Authority I got from killing Hephaestus." Illya pointed out.

"…Just how many gods have you slain?" Medea eyed her curiously.

"Five since becoming a Campione, including the one I summoned when I was trying to get you. Pretty sure it was a Heretic God version of you." Illya admitted nonchalantly.

"You… killed me?" Medea repeated incredulously.

"No, just the Heretic God. You came from the Throne of Heroes; she came from the Realm of Myths that is only of this world rather than part of Akasha." Illya explained.

"That does not change the fact that…" Medea scowled.

"Look, Medea." Illya cut her off with a frown. "Since I've come to this world, each and every Heretic God I've run across has tried to kill me, if they didn't plan on raping me like Heretic Herakles was apparently planning. I'm a Campione, a Godslayer, their natural enemy. Me and them fighting to the death is simply the natural order of this world."

"…I see." Medea sighed. "I suppose, when you put it like that, it makes sense. My apologies for stepping out of line."

"It's fine, I don't want nor need mindless drones." Illya waved her off. "Now put those on before every mage in the country gets here." She instructed as she stored away the Lesser grail and deconstructed the circle back into a platinum bar. With that, he disappeared.

"What the…?" Medea blinked, looking around "Where did she…" suddenly her surroundings changed "go?"

"I teleported to Japan, where we'll be living, and then brought you all here as well." Illya explained patiently, knowing from prior experience with her other Servants – well, Kuro and EMIYA at least – that it was best to explain what she was capable of so they don't go into a panic later. "Actually, let me brief you about my Authorities, other than the ones I got today which I don't know about yet." She decided.

Half hour later, she had finished the explanation and was debating various uses for certain Authorities with Medea.

"Are you sure about this?" Illya asked doubtfully.

"I'm certain. Hecate's **Black Magic** should do more than amplify your own curses." Medea argued.

"Perhaps, but keep in mind that Authorities gained by Campione are not the same as when they are used by gods. They can be diminished and altered in both nature and applications, we've learnt that much." Kuro pointed out.

"It won't hurt to try." EMIYA admitted. "In this case, the worst thing that could happen is strengthening the already present curse, and while it cost us a pretty penny to buy it, it would not be that great of a loss."

"Alright then." Illya shrugged. "I'll try to lift the curse here with my **Black Magic**." She said as she got up from the bench they were sitting on, protected by a bounded field from the reach of the curse and headed towards the center of the property, a shrine which Medea easily identified as the central focus of the curse. "As for boosting it with Hecate's **Witch** , I'm pretty sure it would work since I've already managed to mix the effects of **Black Magic** and **Verg Avesta** before, so I assume it should work even better since these ones come from the same god."

Reaching the shrine, Illya closed her eyes and focused as she called upon the **Black Magic** Authority and once she felt it active did the same with the **Witch**. Before she could proceed and try to dispel the curse, however, she felt something resonating within herself and after a few seconds of meditations she found something that felt like a slightly weaker version of the **Witch** bearing the signature of the Goddess she had slain that day. Deciding to look into it further, she found six other Authorities from the same source and one of them seemed to react to her current intent. Tapping into it as well, she realized what it could do and opened her eyes with a grin before blinking as she realized she was emanating a somewhat malevolent purplish aura.

"Must be from using so many Authorities simultaneously." She shrugged, entirely unaware that it generally took Campione years to combine more than two Authorities, centuries for four.

Had anyone told her this, however, she would likely just shrug and say that she was more attuned with magic them most – which was entirely true, what with having a materialized soul, being a Magician of the Heaven's Feel and having been mostly a homunculus before being reborn as a Campione, thus essentially a living magic circuit.

" _ **Curse from envy that taints the world, be broken!"**_ Illya chanted as she unleashed a pulse of power the engulfed the temple. Moments later, Illya was back to her usual self and the very air in the temple courtyard felt pure, devoid of the taint that had seeped into the land for decades.

"That was a new one." Kuro remarked.

"Yeah, I used four Authorities at the same time." Illya confessed. "I apparently got a **Curse Breaker** Authority from Medea, as well as a slightly weaker version of the **Witch** Authority." She explained.

"You had me scared for a moment there. You were radiating as much power as Dark Sakura, though not as evil." EMIYA pointed out.

"I would hope not." Illya huffed, feeling rather insulted by the comparison to Sakura Matou. "Now then, what will you be needing to turn this area into a Temple with your Territory Creation? Other than prana, of course."

"Time, a day or so." Medea mused as she examined the area from a magical standpoint. "But if you're asking about regents, precious metals and gemstones of high quality infused with some potent prana will be necessary in some quantities."

Seconds later, a golden portal opened and deposited dozens of ingots of Gold, Silver, Platinum, Mithril, Orichalcum and Adamant each, and a dozen or so large fist-sized gemstones of various kinds filled with True Ether.

"Will this do?" Illya grinned.

"These are…" Medea trailed off in surprise as she picked up one of the gemstones.

"Filled with True Ether, yes." Illya confirmed her thoughts. "Don't worry about using them all up, the **Gate of Babylon** regenerates the used-up treasures every day and repairs damaged treasures every week."

"I… see." Medea muttered, feeling rather stunned. "Before I begin, however, what exactly do you wish to use this temple for. To live here or…"

"No, while we may be spending some nights here occasionally so living areas should remain functional, the primary purpose will be to serve as a workshop." Illya explained.

"I see. Any particular kind of magecraft. Will I need to make special preparations?" Medea asked.

"Well, I will be coining some homunculi for starters. After that, I will branch out, most likely in the magic of this world, as well as the True Magic of our world." Illya pondered.

"So I'll set aside some chambers specifically for homunculus creation, and the rest will need to be adaptable." Medea nodded in thought.

"Oh, and make sure everyone here has space for workshops, plus several extras." Illya added. "While we could all share the same workshop since Gaia is not limiting our magecraft here so the effects of our mysteries won't diminish if spread around, I'm sure we're all more comfortable with having our own private areas for research."

"Understood." Medea smiled. "There won't be any problems."

 _Timeskip, next afternoon_

"We have a major problem." Medea announced with no little irritation.

In response, Illya's head dropped onto the table with a dull 'thunk'.

"I told you so!" Kuro chirped.

"What?" Medea looked at the two in bemusement.

"Say things like 'there won't be any problems' is not much different then asking 'what's the worst that could happen'." Kuro helpfully answered.

Turning her head towards the last remaining – hopefully – sane member of the group, Medea stared in askance.

"You tempted Fate, and Fate is a bitch." EMIYA answered succinctly.

"I can agree with that." Medea muttered.

"So, what exactly is the problem?" Illya asked.

"Ironically enough… I am." Medea sighed at the flat stares she received. "Greek magecraft has a certain feel, different the Japanese magecraft. While I can – and mostly have – turned the grounds into a Temple with my Territory Creation skill – which has apparently gotten stronger now that I have a materialized soul – the fact remains that if someone with any sensory powers whatsoever gets close, they will be able to tell something is amiss. And considering how many of those Hime-Miko Japan has and is still training…" she trailed off.

"…Well, fuck." Illya swore. Medea had been her best bet as a teacher since Illya had a preference for European magecraft which the Servant of the Spell practiced, but it turns out that such a thing would interfere with other matters.

"Are you sure you can't do it? I mean, even regular high-level magi from out world are capable of putting up a bounded field like we need given enough time and resources." EMIYA said suspiciously.

"And they would do so by drawing on the Ley Lines to power the spells they cast, thus infusing the bounded fields with the magical signature of the ley lines, making them blend in the surroundings." Medea pointed out. "I, however, possess much more potent power and even should I draw from the Ley Lines when putting up the bounded fields, the power I draw would be 'colored' by my innate one, thus making it meaningless. There is also the volume of power that needs to be concealed or muted, the Ley Line Nexus itself, which makes things even harder."

At this point both EMIYA and Illya remembered that the Ryuudou Temple had a natural bounded field due to being the keystone of Fuyuki's Ley Lines as well as being built on top of the Greater Grail.

"So… what can be done to fix this?" Illya asked slowly.

"…I need help." Medea grimaced as it stung her pride something fierce. "Another Caster, one of Japanese origin, with even the slightest of Territory Creation skill will be able to help me blend my bounded fields into the ambient mana without issue."

"Okay then, I suppose another Caster would not be a burden or anything." Illya nodded slowly before turning towards EMIYA.

"What?" he asked defensively.

"Suggestions for a Japanese Caster." Illya replied.

"And what makes you think… right who am I kidding?" he sighed. "Well, the thing is I generally don't encounter Japanese Heroic Spirits during the Grail Wars, or Asian for that matter."

"The Grail System was designed to draw on European legends, I know. But with the tainting of the Grail System and the various way people had found to circumvent the rules, I'm sure you've run across _some_ Japanese Heroic Spirits."

"True, but they were mostly Sabers, Archers, Riders, Assassins and Berserkers." EMIYA replied. "Off the top of my head, I can name Okita Souji for Saber, Oda Nobunaga for Archer, Ushiwakamaru for Rider, Fuuma Kotarou for Assassin and Minamoto no Yorimitsu for Berserker."

"But we need a Caster, preferably a good one." Kuro pointed out.

"Well…" EMIYA said after a couple minutes of wracking him brains "I can remember two participating in Grail Wars. I didn't actually meet him, but I know for sure Tokugawa Ieyasu was summoned at least once as a Caster. And the other…"

"Well?" Illya pressed.

"Tamamo no Mae." EMIYA replied.

"…I'm sorry, did you just suggest one of the facets of Amaterasu as a Caster Class Servant?" Medea blinked.

"You're the granddaughter of Helios and Heracles is the son of Zeus. Even Medusa who is a fallen Earth Goddess, has been summoned before. It's not that surprising." Illya pointed out absently. "Medea, theoretically speaking, which of those two would be a better choice – for the temple, I mean."

"Tamamo no Mae, definitely." Was the immediate response.

"What was she like? Personality-wise." Illya glanced at EMIYA.

"She was… friendly? Affectionate?" he chuckled, a bead of sweat appearing on his forehead. "Maybe Tokugawa Ieyasu would be better, since…"

"Let's go summon ourselves a fox!" Illya utterly ignored him. "It's a good thing we're already in Kyoto since we can use the site of the old Heian Palace as summoning grounds."

"You do realize that you're more than likely going to first summon the Heretic God Tamamo no Mae, right?" EMIYA pointed out. "Are you really going to summon one of the Three Great Monsters of Japan in Kyoto?" he demanded.

"Yep." Illya nodded

"If you don't want listen to my advice, why did you summon me in the first place?" he asked in annoyance.

"Cooking." The three females answered in one voice, earning a sweatdrop from the tanned white haired man.

"Give me one good reason why I should let you go through with this." He crossed his arms over his chest.

A second later Berserker materialized les then an inch from his face and let loose an ear-shattering roar, leaving more than a few drops of saliva on his face.

"That is a very compelling argument." Kuro remarked from behind Illya.

"Very well, in light of this I believe Tamamo no Mae would indeed be a good choice." EMIYA said slowly, his face rather pale for how tanned he was.

"I knew you'll see things my way, oni-chan." Illya grinned in satisfaction as Berserker retuned to astral form.

That night, at the memorial stone that marked the site of the Daigokuden hall of the now gone Heian Imperial Palace of Kyoto, a summoning circle had been drawn in platinum, and connected to it were the Lesser Grail and a gemstone with a supply of prana to be used in the creation of the Servant Container. On the edge of the circle were placed nine orange hairs tied together, taken from the tail of a fox Illya had Berserker go a catch. That was the catalyst.

" _ **Silver and iron to the origin. Gem and the archduke of contracts to the cornerstone. The ancestor is my great master Schweinorg.  
The alighted wind becomes a wall. The gates in the four directions close, coming from the crown, the three-forked road that leads to the kingdom circulate.  
Fill. Fill. Fill. Fill. Fill.  
Repeat every five times.  
Simply, shatter once filled.  
I announce.  
Your self is under me; my fate is in your sword.  
In accordance with the approach of the Holy Grail, if you abide by this feeling, this reason, then answer.  
Here is my oath. I am the one who becomes all the good of the world of the dead, I am the one who lays out all the evil of the world of the dead.  
Thou with magic reaching the realm of the Gods.  
You, seven heavens clad in three words of power, arrive from the ring of deterrence, O keeper of the balance!"**_

As the summoning took place, Illya knew she had blundered once more and summoned a Heretic God instead of a Heroic Spirit and warned her Servants as much.

This time, however, she was a bit slow and the crimson eyed dark haired woman with nine crimson tipped black fox tails transformed into a humongous nine-tailed fox as soon as she caught sight of her.

Thankfully, that was all Heretic Tamamo no Mae had time to do before her entire body – head, torso, legs and tails – was bound by the **Chains of Heaven** from over a hundred of the **Gate of Babylon** 's portals. Then she drew the _**Traced**_ **Harpe** from another portal causing the fox's struggles to cease as it eyed the scythe with recognition.

"For what it's worth, I'm sorry." Illya apologized. "But you're not the fox I was trying to summon. _**Nine Lives: The Shooting Hundred Heads!**_ " she called out as she used the Authority of Herakles through the immortal-killing blade, ending the Heretic Goddess' life with one swing that delivered a hundred devastating hits.

Acknowledging the presence of the newly gained Authorities, Illya pulled another gemstone full of prana and nine more fox hairs tied together to repeat the summoning, hopping for the best. But just as she was about to begin, a thought crossed her mind and she shrugged.

" _Why not?"_

With that, she activated both **Witch** Authorities and repeated the summoning chant for the Caster Class, this time knowing it had succeeded before it was even over, once more connecting to Akasha and gaining memories from an alternate self.

Within the circle, surrounded by prana smoke, was a beautiful pink haired woman with golden-yellow eyes, wearing and ornate blue outfit with black, white and orange elements… that had two fluffy fox ears sticking from the top of her head and nine fox tails sticking from her tailbone, all of an orange-brown color.

"Oh, what a cute Master I have!" the woman cheerfully exclaimed before glomping Illya and proceeding to suffocate her within the confines of her generous bust.

A minute later Illya activated her strength Authority, the **Bull Wrestler** that she got from Heretic Herakles, and manage to escape the mammary death trap.

"Oh, sweet air!" she gasped, dropping the Authority.

"Oh, I'm so sorry!" the new Servant apologized. "I was just happy to meet you, Master…"

"It's, I'm happy to meet you too. Tamamo no Mae, right?" Illya inquired.

"Yep! Were you trying to summon me in particular?" Tamamo inquired.

"Yeah, we needed a Japanese Caster Class Servant and I heard you were pretty friendly so…" Illya was cut off once more hugged though this time she was not being suffocated.

"Oh, thank you, I've been hoping to get summoned for such a long time!" Tamamo exclaimed.

"As much as I enjoy out Master being treated like a stuffed toy…" Medea began with an amused grin "We need to get out of here before every mage in Kyoto shows up."

"Agreed. Your bounded field can only conceal so much." Illya agreed as she escaped Tamamo's arms to return the circle to platinum bar form and store it away in the **Gate of Babylon** with the Lesser Grail.

Then, without another word teleported her Servants using **Far-Reach** before following suit, all of them reappearing within their magically protected hotel room.

"Okay, first things first, put these on, Tamamo." Illya took another pair of magic-concealing earrings from the **Gate** , this pair being the second to last she had made, just slightly weaker than her own. But with Tamamo being who she was, radiating Divinity and magic like that, she would need it. "They will conceal your magical aura completely when not using your powers."

"They're beautiful." Tamamo whispered as she accepted the golden sun-shaped earrings with pink diamonds at the core.

Over the next hour, the entire situation was explained to her and the more she found out the more pronounced the frown that had at some point appeared on her face became.

"Normally…" Tamamo began after a period of silence during which she put her thought together "I would be more than a little opposed to letting you go around slaying gods, never mind helping you do it, as I am one myself though a fragmented one. However, this is not a normal situation at all, is it." she mused. "The way I understand it, these so-called 'Heretic Gods' are not true deities at all, but rather copies in the same way us Servants are copies of our core selves within the Throne of Heroes… however, these Gods seem to be called Heretic for a good reason, if some of them actually behave gone against legends that form the very core of their existence." She paused and tried to choose the right words. "I would call them tainted, but they are not, not really. Warped, maybe distorted? Yes, that seems to fit better." She remarked. "No wonder Pandora created an entire Divine System to deal with them… I have little doubt that many of the Gods that reside within the Realm of Myths are quite horrified with what their split fragments get up to while in the Human World."

"If they were, wouldn't they stop sending these Heretic Gods to Earth?" EMIYA pointed out.

"One would think so." Tamamo chuckled. "But you forget that they are gods. In their eyes, they can make no mistake, they are perfect, they cannot fail. Their pride could very well be the source of Heretic Gods. That is assuming they even have control over the forming and descent of Heretic Gods."

"You make a good point." Illya mused. "We already know that on this world concentrations of divine power can mutate and materialized as Divine Beasts. Something similar may be happening in the Realm of Myths, forming Heretic Gods. And knowing the gods, they could have made their own system to automatically dump them on Earth."

"That is a likely possibility." Medea said slowly. "Let's consider things this way: Pandora unleashed 'all the worlds disasters' from her pithos upon the world. Because of this, the gods retreated into their myths but were still 'infected' or the like, leading to the creation of Heretic Gods. Assuming that strong enough to do so, the True Gods did something to have the Heretic Gods automatically sent to Earth, perhaps even before they gained awareness in the Realm of Myths, which could mean the Heretic Gods are not even aware of their own true nature. And to counteract what could be seen as her own mess, Pandora used the 'hope' left in her pithos to create the Campione system."

"That sounds… possible, but it relies on a lot of assumptions." Kuro said thoughtfully.

"Well, the only way to know for sure would be to ask the source, so unless I meet Pandora again we might never know." Illya pointed out.

"At any rate, back to the matter at hand." Tamamo spoke up with a smile. "I would be glad to be part of your group."

"Welcome aboard." Illya grinned.

"Now, since you summoned me specifically, I assume you needed me for something?" the fox girl asked.

"I'll let Medea explain since she knows more about it." Illya replied.

As the two Casters began to discuss and plot various modifications to the temple, Illya went to bed. The next day could be tiresome.

 _Timeskip – two days later, sunrise_

It had taken a full day and night, but Medea and Tamamo had managed to turn Illya's new property into a proper Temple worthy of a magus from the Age of the Gods yet at the same time keep its nature still Japanese to blend in perfectly in the area.

However, as they admired the work of mystical nature, they took notice of something else regarding the temple.

"This place is not quite a dump, but it would get there soon if left alone." EMIYA remarked.

"I know. Quite a few of the buildings are structurally unsound from lack of maintenance. It's one of the reasons why it took us so long to finish. We had to set up the bounded fields in such a way that did not rely on structural integrity." Medea grumbled.

"To be fair, we had to put it under magical protection before anyone noticed we bought it and makes a fuss about it." Illya pointed out. "Besides, I plan on fixing everything."

"We can either hire workers and hypnotize them to forget about this place afterwards or wait until you've coined your homunculi and have them made the repairs." EMIYA offered.

"No, I mean I'm fixing it right now." Illya grinned and with a pulse of prana a massively powerful bounded field formed around the entire small mountain the temple was built on. Then she opened the **Gate of Babylon** and dropped a few metric tons of various high quality wood beams, such as cedar and cherry, hundreds of thick bamboo shoots as well as gold and silver bars, right in the main courtyard.

Cupping her hands, a golden orb formed emanating obscene amounts if divine power which she dropped on the ground where it began to grow and expand. That was her **Olympus Palace** Authority which allowed her to spawn a Greek style palace wherever she wished.

Before it could even begin to grow properly by cannibalizing the area, Illya activated bot her **Witch** Authorities and called up her crafting hammer.

" _ **I strike while the iron is hot, as the bellows blow, with the flames of Heaven and the metal of Earth. I forge a new treasure worthy of the gods themselves!"**_ she chanted before bringing down the hammer onto the growing palace.

The Temple around them was almost instantly consumed by red flames and light before fading to reveal a sight that make their jaws drop. It was still a Japanese temple, but it was much bigger, it was more carefully constructed and it was radiating power and divinity. And it all looked new.

"A Grand Temple." Medea whispered in awe.

"It's something that only high level Servants with EX ranked Territory Creation and Item Construction can bring into existence… And this one is actually divine in nature." Tamamo remarked.

"Illya… what did you do?" Kuro asked wide-eyed.

"Well, I found out by making these concealing earrings that I can use as already existent magical items as regents to make new ones." The Seventh Campione smirked. "So I use the Temple Medea and Tamamo have created as regent and basis while also all those raw materials and on **Olympus Palace** before it fully formed. Also, as I had both **Witch** Authorities active at the time, the bounded fields should have increased in power exponentially. And since I had set up that strong bounded field beforehand, nobody will have felt the entire place being remade." She proudly explained.

"It's… amazing." Medea admitted. "On par with the temples of the greater amongst the gods at their height."

"And it's ready to be used." Illya added with a satisfied smile.

 **A.N.: Another chapter, hope you consider it was worth the wait.**

 **Here's the Authorities Illya has that I've shown so far:**

 **King Arthur – Excalibur & Invisible Air**

 **Cú Chulainn – Gae Bolg**

 **Gilgamesh – Gate of Babylon**

 **Medusa – Cybele and Bellerophon**

 **Medea – Rule Breaker**

 **Herakles – God Hand**

 **Hassan-i-Sabbah / Demon God Shayṭān – Zabaniya: Delusional Heartbeat**

 **Angra Mainyu – Verg Avesta**

 **Hecate / Trivia – Far-Reach, Witch, Necromancer, Maker of Nymphs, Crossroad, Elixir, Herbs, Three Realms, Keys of Hades, Black Magic**

 **Hephaestus / Vulcan – God Forge, First Flame, Return to Origins, Fiery Earth, Golden Throne, Olympus Palace, Golden Net, Automaton, Divine Life-Maker, Ambrosia**

 **Hel – Changing of Seasons, Half-Dead, Garmr, Realm of Ice, Realm of Fire, Reaper, Halls of the Dead, Serpent of Malice**

 **Herakles – Nine Lives, Bull Wrestler**

 **Medea – Witch, Curse Breaker**


	5. Chapter 5

**DISCLAIMER:** I do not own Fate/stay night or Campione. Fate/stay night is the property of TYPE-MOON and Campione is the property of Takedzuki Jou.

 _Italics text = character thinking to themselves._

 _Underline+Italics = character communicating with telepathy_

 **Bold text = shouting**

 _ **Bold+Italcs = Casting Spell/Ability**_

 **Chapter Five**

 **May the Seventh Campione step forward**

Illyasviel von Einzbern was ecstatic.

Why should she not be? After all, for the first time in two years she was alone.

Not that she minded the company of her Servants – her new family, really – but the fact remained that ever since she took that solo trip to Egypt two years ago, which brought her closer to true death then everything else, they had all but been watching her every outing as if expecting her to be attacked by a Heretic God – which, admittedly, happened at times, but such was the life of a Campione, even one in hiding, one who the rest of the world didn't knew existed.

She cared for them all deeply, having bonded and gotten really close since their respective summonings, but she needed to _breathe_ , and their excessive care was suffocating her.

The fact that the intended end-result of her trip would place her in more danger then she had been since arriving into this world made it rather ironic that this was the first trip without them watching over her shoulder that they permitted.

Still, needs must what needs must, and if she was going to finally reveal herself as a Campione outside their tightknit group, it was best to do it on her own and look perfectly in control while doing so. Having them there to coddle her would definitely send a wrong message, making her look either weak or easily manipulated, and while she could wash away such erroneous impressions with the blood of those who confronted her, it would be a waste of time and effort.

That was not to say her intent was to announce to the whole world of her status; no, she was merely sharing it with one of the most powerful human magic users in this world, one Lucretia Zola, the Highest Ranked Witch on the Earth, better known as the Witch of Sardinia which was where she lived.

And, as an excuse, she was playing delivery-girl by returning to her an ancient stone tablet that she had left in the care of her acquaintance and EMIYA's relatively close friend Kusanagi Ichirou. From what they could tell, the tablet was actually a grimoire of divine origin, created either by Prometheus or just out of his power, if the carvings were anything to go by. A deeper investigation revealed it to hold an Authority, though they were not entirely sure what it could do. Unlike her own Authorities, she did not get any guiding feelings from the tablet.

They were decently certain, however, that it was either of power absorption or sealing nature since, after a few glasses of wine whose alcohol content had been _**Reinforced**_ , Ichirou had admitted to having heard that before Lucretia left the table in his care, she had visited a temple that was supposedly being plagued by an evil spirit, but afterward she left it seems things had gone back to normal.

So here she was, in Sardinia, going to deliver the grimoire before wowing the Witch with her sheer awesomeness! After all, if they were going to introduce themselves to the supernatural groups of this world, it was best if they started with someone standing at the top like one of the strongest non-Campione humans.

"Still…" Illya muttered as she gazed at the tablet in amusement "to think so many of our projects have been accelerated thanks to this thing. Especially Medea's…"

"xxxx, xx, xxxxxx... xxxxxx."

Glancing up at the unknowing language, Illya froze in her tracks.

The speaker appeared to be a year or so younger than Illya's apparent age of sixteen, making him fourteen or fifteen, with jet black hair to his shoulders, skin the color of ivory, and most important of all, he was extremely handsome. Illya felt a certain draw to him, an allure, but it was not affecting her, merely washing over her tipping her off that it was a magic of some sort though it appeared to be passive rather than something he was actively casting.

What truly caught her attention was the muted divine aura around him, invisible to the naked eye yet to her it might as well been slapping her over the face.

" _Should I move to kill him right off the bat?"_ Illya considered idly before deciding otherwise _"No, let's see what he wants first. If he's hostile, he dies."_ "I'm sorry, I don't understand that."

The teen blinked before smiling.

"Oh, my apologies, then I shall use thy way of speaking." The teen replied in flawless Japanese. "Well, hardly of significance, but a strange taste – no, dare I say smell – hangeth around thee, catching my attention, thus I spoke to thee."

"…You know, it's quite rude to tell a girl she smells." Illya twitched.

"Payest no heed to it, I assume I have made a fool of myself, to have asked such a strange question." The teen chuckled. "Girl, acceptest mine apology for my misspoken words. Pray forgivest me, I mean thee no offense."

"Apology accepted, I suppose." Illya replied a bit miffed. "What's your name? I am Illyasviel von Einzbern."

"Of course I remember, my name… hm, what is it?" The teen mused casually.

"…Amnesia?" Illya wondered.

"Of course it is amnesia. Correct, I have lost all memories of the past. A troublesome condition, and most vexing." The teen remarked. "However, though I have neither knowledge of my name nor origin, there is no immediate problem. All I need to know is the most important thing about myself."

"What's that?" Illya wondered how long she should keep humoring this loony god.

"I am the victor. Victory is always in my hands. That is my nature. Facing any kind of conflict or enemy, unchangeable and unshakeable is my victory." The teen declared.

"That so. Then I'll call you Victor until you remember your name." Illya suggested.

"Victor? Yes, that fits me well." The teen nodded in satisfaction.

"So, what are you doing here? Trying to remember your past?" Illya inquired.

"I seek defeat. I have long sought the taste of defeat for all this time, but none hath ever prevailed against me. By the way, whenever I start fighting I lose myself, and cannot avoid getting all serious." He paused and eyed Illya in consideration. "How about it? Art thou interested in competing against me? Canst thou amuse me for a while?"

At these words Illya carefully avoided tensing up and considered the situation. On the one hand, she could end this god her and now. On the other hand, not only were they in a populated harbor and would likely cause serious damage, but this god seemed to be damaged at least mentally which would likely lead to her not gaining any Authority for her effort. And it was not like he was causing trouble.

Before she could answer either way, they were interrupted.

"Excuse me, very sorry for the sudden intrusion, but I have something to ask."

The newcomer was a beautiful young lady, around Illya's apparent age. Just barely over 160cm, her height was not especially tall for European standards. However, there was a certain sense of dignity, an imposing presence not dissimilar to that of nobility. Her long blonde hair fluttered against the sea breeze. Dressed in red, under the glow of the orange sunset and in contrast to her long blonde hair, the impression of the red color was especially intensified. Red like a burning flame and hair the color of gold, it was like the crown of a warrior, majestically perched upon her head. Beautiful features as if the result of delicate craftsmanship, better proportioned than any doll, livelier than any model or actress, and completely saturated with nobility and self-confidence, it was a face one could never forget after seeing once.

Idly, Illya wondered if one of her ancestors was a homunculus like her mother Irisviel, possessing ethereal beauty which got passed down the bloodline. She also wondered how sweet those soft-looking lips tasted…

"Please tell me all about the god that has appeared on this island. My name is Erica Blandelli. Consider it a return gift, as there is no need for you two to report your names."

" _Okay, she's more arrogant and has a worse holier than thou attitude then Rin. She's still a hot piece of ass."_ Illya inwardly decided while outwardly she twitched at being dismissed out of hand. "Come again?" she asked the blonde, Erica.

"I would like to ask you about the Heretic God incidents that appeared all over the island of Sardinia about three days ago. Bosa, Orgosolo, Barumini... You were sighted in all the places where divine presences were confirmed. This cannot be coincidence, right?" Erica accused.

"…I just flew over her from Japan." Illya deadpanned.

"I was referring to your companion." Erica corrected her. "I am Erica Blandelli, Great Knight of the magic association Copper Black Cross of Milan. Even in this remote place in the south, there are members of our association, and the person sighted I mentioned just now is him."

" _So he has been causing trouble around here? Then I guess I should put him down soon."_ Illya decided. _"Sigh, there goes my quiet, uneventful trip."_

"Who on earth are you? Though it isn't apparent, could you be a mage? A priest or deacon of some religion? If that's the case, there is nothing unusual about successfully summoning a Heretic God by chance. Anything wrong with my speculation?" Erica prodded, smiling with great arrogance. "Ah, I've waited for you for so long, and yet you respond with silence? No other way then, peaceful negotiations end here and it's time for battle. Trying to talk sense into people who cannot communicate is like casting pearls before swine."

" _Insulting a god to his face?"_ Illya barely refrained from snorting. _"She's a dead woman. Shame, I would have loved a chance to tap that."_

" _ **Come, lion of steel. The one carrying the spirit of the lion, the steel that carries the essence of battle! Respond to my hand and voice! Your name is Cuore di Leone... The warrior inheriting the name of the lion-hearted king!"**_ Erica incanted. _**"The knight Erica Blandelli swears thus, I will return your loyalty with my valor and chivalry!"**_

With those spell words, a sword suddenly appeared in her hand. The silver body of the blade was slender and elegant, like a beam of clear light bathed in the rays of the setting sun.

"If you are someone involved with gods, you must have heard of the mighty names of Erica Blandelli and Cuore di Leone? I have no wish to use the red and black techniques against a nobody. Hurry up and tell me all you know with efficiency, swiftly and obediently." Erica smirked as she pointed the tip of the sword towards Illya and 'Victor'.

"…Nice trick. Can you do bunnies next?" Illya smiled – how could she not? Erica had just chanted several sentences merely to summon her sword, while Illya could rain down hundreds with a thought.

"Thou mayst consider that level of magic a parlor trick. It is not a particularly amazing spell." 'Victor' seemed to be in agreement. "Thou art an unruly little lady. To point a sword at me, even for warriors in the past, none have dared such barbaric acts towards me. The ignorant are truly terrifying."

"Ah, so confident in your own abilities?" Towards the wryly smiling youth, Erica proudly puffed her chest. "If you'd like, I can prepare a sword for you. I, Erica Blandelli, will never let anyone escape from a duel of the sword. What do you say?"

Hearing her conceited words, Illya whistled lowly.

" _Damn, she's approaching Gilgamesh levels of arrogance. Better step in before she gets stepped on."_ The white-haired girl though. She could tell that the Italian blonde was talented even without using _**Tracing**_ on her sword – which she did anyway – but against a god, even an amnesic one, a sword even as famous as hers might as well be a twig.

"Thy proposal interests me, but sadly enough, I have no leisure to spare." The youthful god stated.

"I see. There has never been a person who refused my invitation. To think I would have a first experience of rejection in such a place, how insulting." Erica sighed but did not relax her stance.

"Hoho, thou shouldst not say it so, I shall play with thee one day. But now, a more troublesome fellow is coming." 'Victor' announced in amusement.

As if his words were a signal – which could very well be the case – an extremely loud explosion was heard. A gigantic **Boar** roughly fifty meters in body length had suddenly appeared in the sea, and was landing on the coast in a very strenuous manner, knocking over the surrounding buildings.

Taking her eyes off it to glance at the god, she was met with empty space while the sword-wielding Erica was frozen.

"Damn it!" Illya swore. "Did he summon that Divine Beast? Or was he just waiting for it to arrive?" she wondered out loud before running off straight towards the **Boar** , her _**Reinforced**_ legs allowing her to match cars in speed.

She utterly ignored the shouts of Erica who appeared to have snapped out of her stunned state. Within a minute, she was nearly there but a collapsing wall of a burning building stopped her in her tracks. She was about to turn around to find a better route – or more likely teleport past the obstacle with **Far-Reach** – but cries for help from within the damaged building stopped her.

She bit her lip. On the one hand, stopping the **Boar** would prevent further damage from occurring. On the other hand, neither Kuro nor EMIYA would be happy with her abandoning someone in need of help right before her eyes.

With a sigh, she jumped through the hole into the burning building, following the noise. Soon enough she reached the source, a family of four, with two boys around eight or nine years old, one holding a baby in his arms… and what was likely the mother collapsed on the floor, trapped under a collapsed beam that was pushing on her upper back.

Gritting her teeth, she hurried to her side and reinforced her body further before slowly lifting the metal beam off the woman, who slowly and carefully crawled from under it, allowing Illya to drop it.

"This way." Illya said succinctly as she pulled the woman to her feet, a quick _**Tracing**_ of her back revealing that she would only have an ugly bruise from her ordeal, and dragged her towards the opening she had entered through. When they reached outside, Illya pointed in the direction she had come from. "Go in that direction, it will be safer." She instructed and barely heard the woman thanking her again before running off to reach the **Boar**.

When she got there, she was surprised. Erica, the arrogant blond knight, was holding the **Boar** off with some sort of barrier she was casting through her sword. However, she was quickly losing ground and within seconds the **Boar** would overpower and skewer her with its huge tusks, if not just swallow her whole.

Erica Blandelli knew she was in a bind. Thinking back at what the pretty albino girl had said before running off, she realized she had been quite reckless if that youth was truly capable of summoning such powerful Divine Beasts on his own. She was currently being reckless once more, facing the **Boar** head-on like this, but she knew it was either that or allowing it to rampage further. And now she was paying the price of her arrogance, staring death in the eye as it was about to trample her.

Feeling her reserves nearing their end, she smiled bitterly as her barrier collapsed and the **Boar** came …

" _ **Strike Air!"**_ a familiar voice shouted.

… and the **Boar** was hit in its left side by a powerful blast of wind, diverting its trajectory and missing Erica and the building she was on as it barreled forwards.

"You still alive there, Erica?" the same voice inquired from her right and sure enough, the same albino girl from earlier was there.

"You're…" Erica began only to pause, not knowing her name.

"Hoh, could it be that the mighty Great Knight needs the name of my lowly self?" Illya asked mockingly, though she was not smiling and she was not even looking at the blonde.

The **Boar** was the sole target of her attention.

"Thank you for the assistance." Erica spoke, turning to look at the **Boar** as well. "May I please have your name?"

"Illyasviel von Einzbern." Was the short reply. "And you're pretty lucky this Boar showed up, really. What the hell were you thinking, walking up to a guy like that and challenge him to a fight? He would have squashed you like an ant."

"You know something about him then?" Erica demanded. "Is he the one who summoned the Heretic God?"

"I'm reasonably certain he _is_ the Heretic God." Illya said dryly as she glanced upwards to look at the subject of their discussion, floating above the **Boar**.

"I-Impossible!" Erica stuttered slightly. "I didn't feel magic on him."

"It's easier for gods then for humans to conceal their powers… since in a way, they _are_ their powers." Illya said absently, narrowing her eyes as a tornado formed around 'Victor', obscuring her view of him, before growing and enveloping the **Boar** as well and then disappearing.

"Just like before, a **Wind** deity will appear and vanquish the Divine Beast." Erica concluded.

"…It's his." Illya said after a few moments. "Both he and the **Boar** have the same magical signature."

"So he summoned it here?" Erica demanded angrily.

"No, I don't think that's it…" Illya trailed off thoughtfully. "I think he was waiting for it to show up. He's… damaged. He mentioned not remembering his name, though he remembers his nature well enough."

"That's some interesting information, but not particularly helpful." Erica pointed out.

"Good thing I know where to find out more." Illya smiled as she turned to leave.

"Wait, where are you going?" Erica demanded.

"To Lucretia Zola's home. I was heading there anyway to deliver something." Illya replied.

"I'm coming with you." Erica declared.

"In your condition?" Illya looked over her shoulder with a raised eyebrow. "You put up a good front, but I can tell your magic is exhausted. You can barely stand."

"Just give me a couple hours and I will right as rain!" Erica snapped.

"… I can't waste that much time." Illya stated as she turned around and approached Erica.

"Well…" Erica began before pausing as Illya kept getting closer. "What are you doing?"

Rather than respond verbally, Illya grabbed her by the sides of her head and pulled her into a deep kiss, her tongue seeking out the blonde's and as soon as it made contact, pure power flooded the Italian Great Knight, seeping into her very bones along with a euphoric feeling of absolute pleasure that left her stunned, shivering from the aftereffects when Illya ended the kiss and pulled back not ten seconds after initiating it.

"Can you go now?" Illya asked with a taunting smirk that told she knew exactly what the blonde was experiencing.

"W-What did you do?" Erica whimpered as she tried to regain control of herself and shamefully realized that her panties were soaked from the sudden pleasure.

"A transfer of magic power through a minor tantric ritual in the form of a kiss." Illya replied. "Your reserves should be full now."

Indeed, a quick check of her reserves told Erica that not only was she at full capacity, but the power she currently held was far more potent then hers.

"Yes." Erica nodded slowly. "Very well, let's go. My maid will drive us there."

"Okay." Illya shrugged and followed the blonde – it was not like she really knew where to find the Witch of Sardinia beyond having her address. "By the way…"

"Yes?" Erica asked stiffly.

"Considering how much you enjoyed that…" Illya began playfully in the seductive voice Medea had taught her, causing shivers to go down Erica's spine "Perhaps you need to change before the car ride?"

"…" Erica merely nodded stiffly, blushing further.

 _Timeskip – several hours later_

It was near sunrise when the red sports car driven by Arianna Hayama Arialdi, maid of Erica Blandelli, arrived before the gates of Lucretia Zola's mansion, prompting the maid to wake up to two passengers. She was quite surprised that they had fallen asleep so easily, but she supposed that they were tired after the encounter with the **Boar** Divine Beast.

Unknown to her, despite her F1 - like driving, Illya was not unsettled like all the other people who had the misfortune of having Arianna as a driver, partially due to her mother Irisviel being even worse and partially due to Illya enjoying high-speed driving. Thus, falling asleep in what most would consider a death-trap was not beyond the snowy-haired girl. As for Erica, well, being infused with Illya's power made her more susceptible to magic from the Campione, such as a sleeping spell strong enough to overcome the blonde's nerves. And if Illya took advantage to grope the blonde's bosom a bit to see how she measured compared to Illya herself, well, that was another matter – though after a quick _**Tracing**_ scan of Erica's body, she knew for sure she had an extra inch on the blonde in the bust.

Either way, once she jolted awake at Arriana's prodding, she was quick to end the spell on Erica as well, allowing her to awaken. Together, they stepped up to the gates and Illya quickly detected a decent protective barrier on the gate and the walls it was attached to, as well as a detection ward they triggered by approaching the gate. So she was not surprised when she felt a magical signature approaching, though she was taken aback when it turned out to be a black cat.

"That must be her familiar." Illya remarked. "Rather cliché: a witch and her black cat."

"My name is Erica Blandelli. I am a Great Knight of the Copper Black Cross. I seek an audience with Lucretia Zola." The blonde introduced herself.

"I'm Illyasviel von Einzbern. Lucretia-san should be expecting me; I'm delivering a tablet from Kusanagi Ichirou." The hidden Campione added when the cat turned towards her.

After a few moments of silence during which the cat stared intently at Illya, it turned and left while the gates opened on their own.

"Well, that's an obvious invitation." Illya shrugged as she strode in with Erica right behind her.

Following the cat, they entered the mansion and navigated to a sitting room where a beautiful brown haired and purple eyed woman was laying down on a couch wearing nothing but some skimpy purple underwear.

"Good morning, Miss Lucretia." Illya greeted cheerfully.

"Hoh, good morning to you as well, dear." The woman smiled in amusement at Illya's attitude. "You must be the cute girl that Ichirou talked into traveling across the world to deliver that pesky thing for me. My thanks." She nodded.

"Not a problem." Illya shrugged as she casually approached the witch while pulling the stone tablet from her backpack. "It's not every day one gets to deliver a Grimoire of divine origin. This one was Prometheus, right?" she inquired as she handed it to Lucretia who accepted it gingerly.

"Yes, the **Secret Tome of Prometheus** , capable of stealing a Heretic God's Authority." Lucretia confirmed before setting it down on the coffee table by the couch. "I didn't know you were a mage, though… or is it a Hime-Miko? I confess I can't feel an ounce of power from you…"

"Illya." The white-haired girl replied. "And she's Erica from some Italian mage association."

"The Copper-Black Cross." Erica corrected crossly. "I wish to consult with you regarding the Heretic God that has been causing trouble across Sardinia lately."

"Sigh, I wish I could help you, but I'm afraid I am still paying the price of my arrogance." Lucretia sighed.

"I can tell. You're practically running on fumes." Illya mused.

"Yes, it took everything I had to survive witnessing the battle between those two." Lucretia confirmed.

"Let me help you with that." Illya smiled sweetly.

"What…?!" Lucretia began only for her eyes to widen in shock when her lips were covered by Illya's, and widen further when power unlike anything she had ever experienced poured into her, filling her up to the brim while simultaneously bringing her to the peak of her pleasure once, twice, three times!

Finally pulling away from the attractive woman who was blearily looking her way with unfocused eyes, Illya had to admit she was rather impressed. Lucretia Zola truly lived up to her reputation, her reserves being close to fifty times as large as Erica's who was quite gifted herself.

Shaking her head to clear away the pleasure that brought her to three successive orgasms within the span of a minute, Lucretia stared at the white-haired girl in shock.

"It was you." The brown-haired beauty said in shock.

"Pardon?" Illya blinked.

"Nearly three years ago, at the beginning of summer… it was your power that I felt, that obscenely powerful magical explosion that turned night into day for a good part of Europe." Lucretia said.

"Oh. That." Illya blinked. "Yeah, I suppose that would be rather hard to go unnoticed." She admitted.

"How in the world did you do that? **Why** did you do that? The entire magical world was in a frenzy to cover it up… I hear they used the excuse of a meteor containing unknown gases exploding in the atmosphere." Lucretia frowned.

"How I did it was quite straightforward, to be honest." Illya shrugged. "I compressed all the magical power I had available at the time in my chest and detonated it along with myself like a bomb."

"…Why in the world would you do that?" Erica asked in horror.

"Well, I was out of options and I figured letting Angra Mainyu, the Zoroastrian God of Evil go wild upon the world would kind of suck." Illya said blandly. "It all worked out though, Pandora really knows how to put people back together."

"…Campione. Of course, what else could you be but one of those impossible existences." Lucretia chuckled. "And I suppose you have something to do with those Heretic Gods being sensed to appear in Rome soon after your ascension and their following disappearances?"

"Hecate and Vulcan." Illya frowned. "The ruined my vacation and I had to leave when that idiot with the sword showed up."

"Ho? Scared up Salvatore Doni?" Erica taunted.

"Nope, I could have taken him down even with just the Authorities I knew how to use at the time." Illya shook her head. "I just didn't feel like fighting him after killing so many Heretic Gods in the same week… and I figured destroying most of Rome would look bad as the first thing I did as a Campione." She chuckled sheepishly.

"That so." Lucretia mused, studying Illya's face for lies and finding none. "Why can I not sense you then? From what I could tell during the… power transfer… you have more magical power then two or three of the other Campione put together. Is it an Authority?"

"Close." Illya smiled as she touched her earrings. "I crafted these earrings using an Authority I got from Vulcan. The hide my magical power completely. Otherwise I would stand out like a beacon to everyone even remotely magical."

"I see." Lucretia mused as she eyed the intricate jewelry.

"Anyway, we were hoping you could tell us about the God causing trouble in Sardinia, but you mentioned two…?" Illya trailed off.

"Indeed. It appears that Verethragna, the Persian Warlord or God of Victory, has summoned Melqart, the Phoenician God-King of the Mediterranean, to challenge him in battle." Lucretia stood up, no longer lethargic, and picked up two tomes to show the girls. "Their first bout ended in a draw, with Melqart wounded and Verethragna broken into his ten Incarnations that have scattered across Sardinia."

"I see, so what we have seen so far was Verethragna rounding up his scattered fragments to make himself whole again." Erica spoke. "He has at least five by now, the four that have been rampaging around and the **Gale** he used to collect them."

"Six, I think his physical form was the **Youth.** " Illya pointed out.

"Then there are only four more left." Erica nodded. "Miss Lucretia, what do you think will happen once Verethragna is whole again?"

"He will without a doubt challenge Melqart once more. And…" Lucretia trailed off.

"And?"

"And it will most likely end with them sinking Sardinia. This time they will hold nothing back." Lucretia deduced.

"The I have to stop them." Illya mused. "Or will that idiot show up?"

"Unlikely, Sir Salvatore Doni is still days away. We will have to hold out until he arrives if we are to rely on him aid." Erica shook her head.

"Then it's settled." Illya nodded. "Lucretia, can you use your magic to track down those two Heretic Gods?"

"Yes, with my power restored like this, it should only take me a short while." Lucretia confirmed.

"Great. Please do so and let me know when Verethragna goes after Melqart." Illya requested.

"Would it not be better to hunt him down now while he's weakened?" Erica pointed out though not very enthusiastic about it.

"And leave his remaining Incarnations run wild after their master is dead?" Illya shot back. "No, it's best to let him collect his pieces and take him down immediately afterwards."

"Good point." Erica admitted – while the Heretic God would be stronger, letting those Divine Beasts rampage across Sardinia could kill untold thousands.

"What about Melqart?" Lucretia inquired. "I doubt he will stand idle."

"He won't interfere with my fight with Verethragna." Illya said confidently. "He's a King, his pride would not allow him to imply he needs the help of Verethragna to defeat me."

"And if you're wrong?" Erica prodded before stiffening when Illya's crimson orbs locked onto her blue ones. "I mean no disrespect…"

"Relax, Erica." Illya smiled. "I'm not that big on the who Supreme King stuff that comes with being a Campione… most of the time. I may use it to mess with people if it's fun enough." Illya grinned impishly. "Besides, I can't ask you to be stiff and formal with me after taking your first kiss, right?"

"How did you know…?" Erica blushed.

"I could tell you're pretty inexperienced. Lucretia is much better at it." Illya nodded sagely. "Maybe some practice is in order…?" she tiled her head as she eyed Erica quizzingly.

"Er… I just remembered about Arianna! I left her in the car without any instructions!" Erica babbled as she backed away.

"You're all free to stay here until this mess with Melqart and Verethragna is resolved." Lucretia said with undisguised amusement.

"Right! I'll go tell her that!" Erica darted out of the room.

"My, you're quite good at winding her up." Lucretia chuckled.

"Not quite as good as my sister, but I manage." Illya grinned, thinking of Kuro's advances.

"So, are you just messing with her or…?" Lucretia prodded.

"Hm, I don't know." Illy admitted. "I'm bi and mostly into girls… and I admit I'm quite attracted to Erica… but we've only known each other for a day. I guess it's too early to tell how I feel about her."

"Hm, tell me this though." Lucretia began. "If she let you pin her down and ravage her, would you say no?"

"Of course not!" Illya exclaimed as her eyes unfocused, picturing the scene, how she would tease Erica's body to the brink of orgasm, making her beg for more and swearing herself to her, and only then would she truly take her again and again and again…

"My, quite a precocious young lady, aren't you?" Lucretia said, looking somewhat impressed.

"…I said that out loud, didn't I?" Illya blinked.

"Oh yeah." Lucretia chuckled. "My, you're making me horny again, and I've already orgasmed thrice now. Would you like this witch to teach your two a few things in bed, hm?"

"…It would be rude to refuse such a generous offer." Illya grinned. "What do you think, Erica?"

A yelp from the other room was all the response they could hope for at the moment.

The day passed rather slowly, with Lucretia routinely tracking Verethragna and Melqart's movements across Sardinia, leading to the discovery that Melqart was not far from their current location, within some Phoenician ruins, likely licking his wounds from his battle with the Persian Warlord.

At the end of the day, Arianna cooked them a generous dinner and Lucretia decided to bring out a bottle of wine or ten. Thus, as Illya expected from the start, the result was her being forced to drag the three completely drunk women to their respective beds, herself not being too affected by alcohol due to her homunculus nature having prana circulating at all times, burning away the alcohol before it became harmful.

First she carried Lucretia, then Arianna and finally Erica who was the sleepiest amongst them, to the point that she was whining to Illya about helping her undress. Patiently, the white-haired girl helped her out of her red dress leaving her wearing only her white bra, panties and stockings… at which point Erica collapsed onto the bed and dragged Illya with her.

Illya momentarily attempted to escape her grip, but after a few seconds she decided that she was rather tired herself and there was no harm in sharing a bed with Erica. So, using her **Far-Reach** to send her clothing on a nearby chair, she snuggled into Erica and sank into the world of dreams.

 _Timeskip – Next Morning_

As Erica Blandelli woke up, she could not keep a satisfied smile off her face. Why would she? Her dreams had been pleasant – if rather indecent and centered around one of the most dangerous individuals in the world – and her body was currently more relaxed and comfortable then she ever remembered it to be in the morning.

" _Such a shame, having to wake up… but needs must what needs must."_ She sighed as she remembered the current crisis and that it was not the time to lay about.

Opening her eyes, however, she froze and her smile became rather fixed.

Because before her eyes – as in a couple inches away from her eyes – was something that had featured in her recent dreams: specifically, the naked left breast of Illyasviel von Einzbern. Which led to the understanding that the extremely soft and comfortable pillow that her cheek was resting against was the Campione's right breast.

" _It was real?"_ Erica thought as a thrill of panic and lust passed through her. _"Did we… did we really…?"_ moving her eyes downwards towards her own body, she let loose a sigh of relief… and disappointment at the sight of her underwear. Mostly the later. "It was a dream." She whispered and forced herself to think of the last things she remembered from the previous night, which was Illya carrying her upstairs.

Glancing upwards at Illya's face, she found herself entranced by her beauty. Like a finely crafted doll, devoid of any imperfections, Illya could have very well been a goddess herself rather than merely a human holding the powers of one. And noticing that Illya was still deeply asleep, Erica felt the impulse to… explore.

Slowly, afraid of waking her up, she reached out with her free right hand and gently cupped Illya's breast. At the lack of reaction, she gave it a tiny squeeze which earned a pressured purr from the albino but nothing more. Gaining courage, Erica began to slowly massage the firm yet marshmallow-like mammary, even pinch the pink nipple.

She was so lost in her exploration that she did not realized when Illy opened her eyes, nor when she continued to watch the blonde essentially molest her. She did, however, become aware of the lack of moans that had initially filled the room and raising her eyes she met a predatory crimson pair.

"I… I…" Erica stuttered, trying to think of _some_ excuse…

"Erica." Illya silenced her with a single word. "Would you like me… to return the favor?"

Erica starred at her in shock and incomprehension for a few moments… before blushing and nodding meekly.

Without another word, Illya used **Far-Reach** to remove Erica's bra and panties but left the stockings as they looked good on her. Then, without another word, she twisted her body and Erica's to set the blond on her back with Illya above her, straddling her, before leaning down and claiming her lips, at which point Illya proved to be a dirty cheat by activating one of the Authorities she had gained in Egypt from Qetesh, the Heretic Goddess that had nearly been her end.

Specifically, **Sacred Ecstasy** which not only doubled the individual pleasure felt by each participant during sex, but also linked their senses to feel each-other's pleasure.

From there, the morning devolved into several hours of debauchery for the two young ladies, during which Illya making sure to impart on Erica some of what she had learnt in the past couple years as the master of a perverted sorta-sister, horny fox-girl and a small army of nymphs.

It was only at noon that they were disturbed, with a knowingly grinning Lucretia letting them know lunch was ready in case they ran out of fuel.

Lunch was a decisively awkward affair – for Erica and Arianna, that is. Erica because she didn't even notice when at some point Arianna had entered the room with a fresh set of clothing for her to wear before quickly leaving once she took stock of what was going on. As for Arianna, well, while she knew that Erica would eventually take a lover, she was hoping not to be there to see them going at it when it happened.

As for Illya and Lucretia, both were massively enjoying the awkwardness of the two girls.

As night approached, however, the mood took a downturn as Lucretia's readings revealed that Verethragna was heading towards a certain point to meet up with Melqart and that while three of his Incarnations were still loose, they too were heading there, likely on Verethragna's command. Most likely, he had recovered enough control over them with just seven Incarnations and called them to his side.

So, as they approached the two gods that night, under the light of the lightning that coursed through the clouds, Illya could not help but feel rather nonplused.

Why? It was simply because Erica had pleaded with her to allow her to attempt to have the two gods cease their battle. Illya knew it was a fool's errand, but also understood that even if Illya fought and killed them both, damage was likely to occur which may harm Sardinia as a whole and as a Great Knight, Erica was honor-bound to make the attempt.

Which was why now, as Erica pleaded with the two gods who barely spared her a glance, Illya was full on alert for when _it_ happened. And, sure enough, _it_ came in the form of a lightning strike Verethragna, no more than a swat to drive away a pesky fly in his point of view, but for a human it would be a lethal hit.

Erica knew this too which was why she closed her eyes and made her peace, so she was rather surprised when after the lighting hit she felt no pain. Opening her eyes, she realized that she was not longer on that spot, and was being held in Illya's arms in a bride carry.

"You okay?" Illya eyed her.

"Y-Yeah." Erica nodded and was allowed to stand on her own feet. "Looks like my plan was a bust."

"Time for plan B then." Illya smiled dangerously as she turned and approached the gods. **"Hey, Verethragna!"** she shouted. **"You never did let me answer your challenge in the port. I accept! So come fight me!"**

"Hoh, a brave one!" the Persian God praised. "But right now I'm more interested in…" he suddenly shut up as he felt it, a well of power beyond anything a human may rightly hold.

Illya had removed her earrings, storing them in the **Gate of Babylon**. The time for hiding had ended.

"…On second thought, I see that Melqart is still injured. So, I will face you now while I await his full recovery!" Verethragna changed his mind, gleefully charging at the greater threat.

" **Hah, very well! I will fight the victor between you two once I have fully recovered. That way, you will not be able to claim that you did not fight me seriously when I send you to the afterlife!"** Melqart declared as he turned into wind and distanced himself from the battle but did not leave the area, obviously observing the fight.

Holding his golden sword, Verethragna descended like a golden meteor upon Illy who met him head on with **Excalibur** backed up by the **Ceryneian Hind** and **Bull Wrestler** which granted her Godspeed and Herculean Strength respectively.

Golden blade met golden blade again and again as the two fought before Illya was forced to deflect a strike at her jugular with **Invisible Air** , using it to blast the Persian God away, only for him to respond in kind with his **Gale**.

Distance having been made between them, Verethragna summoned the **Boar** and sent him straight at Illya who grinned mischievously as she responded in kind with the **Erymanthian Boar** which Verethragna's head on, roaring loud enough to unleash sonic booms.

"Hoho, trying to match me, are you?" Verethragna asked in amusement. "Try this then!" he called out as the sun appeared in the night sky before descending upon Illya in the form of a massive horse of fire.

" **Illya!"** Erica shouted in horror at the sight of the girl being consumed by flames.

"Sigh, I guess I had too high hopes…" Verethragna began only to pause when a pillar of golden power erupted from the flames, dispersing them, revealing a nearly naked Illya but otherwise completely unharmed. And in her hands, her blade was collecting massive amounts of power, enough to make Verethragna warry. **"I won't let you!"** he roared as he used Godspeed to close the distance between them, forcing Illya to abandon charging **Excalibur** and only use the accumulated power to meet Verethragna's blade.

"Got scared, did you?" Illya taunted as she pushed against the Warlord's blade.

"It is good to be warry of an unknown." Verethragna shot back. "What god did you usurp this blade from, Godslayer?"

"So that's why you're having so much trouble severing it." Illya smirked, much to the god's chagrin. "You need to know the source of the divinity you need to sever with your sword."

"Indeed. I take it you won't be a good sport and tell me?" Verethragna inquired.

"Not likely!" Illya snorted.

"Then I shall use other means to achieve victory!" the god grinned and moments later Illya had to grit her teeth to avoid screaming as lightning poured into her body from Verethragna's golden sword through **Excalibur**. "It seems I am met with success I this attempt!" he god commented.

Rather than respond, Illya teleported away while dismissing her currently active Authorities. Instead, she activated both **Witch** Authorities to boost her magic before calling for the **First Flame** in her left hand.

" _ **May the dancing flames heed my call."**_ She chanted as within her right hand the **Fox Fire** manifested as bluish green flames, contrasting to the crimson ones in her other hand.

"That is a dangerous one." Verethragna commented with narrowed eyes. "No, two of them? Ho, I am not letting you hit me with those."

"You speak as if you have… a choice!" Illya spoke the last word as she teleported right in front of the suddenly wide-eyed Persian God as she unleashed both her flame Authorities upon him, lighting him up.

As she heard his scream die down Illya almost relaxed before realizing she had not gained his Authority. Turning around, she was just in time to witness him blowing away the flames with his **Gale** leaving behind his rapidly regenerating form.

"There's no way you could have survived that with just these wounds… looks like I'm not the only one with a resurrection Authority." Illya remarked.

"Indeed you are not. My **Ram** is quite helpful like that." Verethragna confirmed, by now fully healed. "You are a formidable foe. One final attack?" he offered, reaching his limits after using nearly all his Incarnations and a resurrection from an attack that nearly surpassed his **Ram's** ability to heal.

"Very well." Illya agreed as he summoned **Excalibur** again and began charging it up, the two **Witch** Authorities speeding things up, and with **Pyre of Apotheosis** doubling the power of her Authorities for this battle, Excalibur shone brighter than ever.

In response, Verethragna concentrated all of his **Goat** Incarnation's lightning into his **Golden Sword** while also funneling as much as he could from what was left of his **White Stallion's** flames before wrapping it all in his **Gale**.

" **EX-"** Illya began as the golden aura spiked before shaping itself into a massive golden blade **"CALIBUR!"** she roared as she swung the holy sword unleashing a beam of golden divine power.

Verethragna did the same, swinging his sword and unleashing a twister or golden flames and lighting that slammed into the beam and for a few seconds seemed to be able to hold it at bay before being cut through allowing the Excaliblast to hit the youthful god and vaporize him.

Illya was sure he did not particularly mind though; she had, after all, seen that last peaceful smile on his face.

"Well, that's one down." Illya commented as she turned towards where she last felt Melqart, only to discover he had departed.

 **A.N.: Illya making her public idol, no,** _ **Campione**_ **debut. I will follow canon for a bit, but not too much. If you enjoyed this chapter, feel free to leave a review.**

 **Here's the Authorities Illya has that I've shown so far:**

 **King Arthur – Excalibur & Invisible Air**

 **Cú Chulainn – Gae Bolg**

 **Gilgamesh – Gate of Babylon**

 **Medusa – Cybele and Bellerophon**

 **Medea – Rule Breaker**

 **Herakles – God Hand**

 **Hassan-i-Sabbah / Demon God Shayṭān – Zabaniya: Delusional Heartbeat**

 **Angra Mainyu – Verg Avesta**

 **Hecate / Trivia – Far-Reach, Witch, Necromancer, Maker of Nymphs, Crossroad, Elixir, Herbs, Three Realms, Keys of Hades, Black Magic**

 **Hephaestus / Vulcan – God Forge, First Flame, Return to Origins, Fiery Earth, Golden Throne, Olympus Palace, Golden Net, Automaton, Divine Life-Maker, Ambrosia**

 **Hel – Changing of Seasons, Half-Dead, Garmr, Realm of Ice, Realm of Fire, Reaper, Halls of the Dead, Serpent of Malice**

 **Herakles – Nine Lives, Bull Wrestler, Ceryneian Hind, Erymanthian Boar, Pyre of Apotheosis**

 **Medea – Witch, Curse Breaker**

 **Tamamo no Mae –** **Fox Fire**

 **Qetesh – Sacred Ecstasy**


	6. Chapter 6

**DISCLAIMER:** I do not own Fate/stay night or Campione. Fate/stay night is the property of TYPE-MOON and Campione is the property of Takedzuki Jou.

 _Italics text = character thinking to themselves._

 _Underline+Italics = character communicating with telepathy_

 **Bold text = shouting**

 _ **Bold+Italcs = Casting Spell/Ability**_

 **Chapter Six**

 **Limelight under the Storm**

"So, how are you feeling? I mean, this was the first time you saw a battle against a Heretic God, right?" Illya inquired as Erica rested her head on her chest once more.

After determining that Melqart had retreated for now, Illya had used **Far-Reach** to teleport not only herself and Erica, but Arianna and the car back to Lucretia's mansion, where after succinctly informing the Witch of Sardinia of the albino's victory over Verethragna, they had all gone to bed.

Now, it was morning and the adrenaline of the previous night had died down.

"I am feeling… very mortal right about now." Erica chuckled humorlessly.

"…Is this about how both Verethragna and I revived after being killed?" Illya asked sheepishly.

"Indeed." Erica confirmed. "I understand how Verethragna did it – and believe it or not, I was actually expecting it – but when he set you on fire… I think I almost had a nervous breakdown."

"Sorry." Illya apologized. "I… actually let him kill me. I could have used Godspeed to dodge if I wanted to."

"…You had a death wish?" Erica turned to look at her incredulously.

"Not quite… you see, **Pyre of Apotheosis** that I got from slaying Herakles a while back allows me to revive immune to the cause of my death, as well as doubling the power of all my Authorities for the duration of that battle." Illya explained.

"So you wanted the boost?" Erica deduced.

"Verethragna was more dangerous than most Heretic Gods." Illya grumbled. "You heard what Lucretia said about him, right? He's been going around seeking out or outright summoning Heretic Gods to fight them for years now, maybe even decades or centuries. And he never lost. At worst, he got a draw and then went back and finished the job."

"Yes… when you put it like that, I understand why you were wary of him." Erica agreed.

"More than that, it's the **Warrior** Incarnation with its **Golden Sword** that can sever divinity." Illya frowned. "As long as he knew the source, he could sever it. There are only a couple handful if that many Authorities with anti-divine properties, and his was one of the ones offensive in nature. Most of them are the kind that inhibit gods rather than cripple them."

"So Verethragna was nearly in a class of his own. I see." Erica mused. "And there was Melqart to consider, of course. You held back some tricks, right?"

"Of course. I purposely tried matching Verethragna's Authorities with similar ones of my own so he will form a false image of me. I avoided relying my more commonly used Authorities, or even my strongest ones at that." Illya nodded.

"Hence why you needed to double the power of your Authorities." Erica deduced. "So, when are we going after Melqart?"

"We're leaving today after Lucretia gives us some directions regarding him. But let's take the scenic route, okay? I want to do a bit of sightseeing… last time I was in Italy, I left in a hurry and didn't even see all of Rome." Illya grumbled.

"That sounds good to me. If you are right, Melqart will lay low until he fully recovers." Erica mused.

As it was, by lunch they had Melqart's basic whereabouts: midway between Sardinia and Sicily, likely drawing on the power of the sea to recover. With that information, they said their goodbyes to Lucretia and left.

The afternoon and next day was spent traveling leisurely to Calgary where they arrived in the evening, and Erica convinced Illya to rely on a local mage to verify Melqart's current location. It was not due to a lack of trust in Lucretia and her capabilities – far from it – but rather a way to determine how much have the local mages learnt of Illya so far.

And unfortunately, the most qualified to do so also happened to be an individual that was 100% untrustworthy, one David Bianchi.

"I see... Since you come with Lucretia Zola's introductions, I cannot ignore you." David Bianchi spoke in a manner that gave off strange pretentious airs. ""I am already aware of the matter of two gods descending here. I also know one of them is Melqart. Based on the other god's identity as an oriental deity, I speculate him to be Verethragna; is that right?"

He was a handsome man who appeared to be twenty-five or six in age. Dressed impeccably in a well-tailored suit, he gave off a sense of vanity like some sort of lady-killer.

Illya was not impressed. At all.

"Yes, based on what we heard from Lucretia, you are an outstanding geomancist. We wish to employ your magical skill to help track down Melqart's whereabouts." Erica spoke in lady-like tones while Illya looked around the reception room in a rather bored manner.

"Well, there's no problem. It's the least I could do out of obligation to Lucretia. However, I hope you can enlighten me. Is it really true that warlord Verethragna met his demise at Melqart's hands?" Bianchi asked.

"Perhaps." Erica smiled. "It might also be true that Verethragna scared off Melqart."

"Hmph! In any case, let me begin preparing for the physiognomy. Could you please be patient while I get the necessary tools ready?" Bianchi told them as he left the reception room.

"He'll try to divine who actually killed Verethragna, won't he." Illya stated more then asked.

"Yes, and it's likely he will succeed." Erica warned her.

"Hm, we'll see. I'm rather curious if it's possible, so let him try." Illya spoke as she reached to caress her earrings, earning a nod of understanding the blonde.

An hour later, Illya was contemplating simply leaving. For all that she was curious how far the news of a potentially new Campione had spread, patient she was not. Just as she was about to suggest to Erica to let her teleport them away, Bianchi returned and led them to a very spacious room, large then a tennis court. At the very center was a large marble table, with a huge 'model' sitting on top of it.

It was a three-dimensional topographical map of the terrain surrounding the Mediterranean. On this roughly 5m x 2m rectangular space, Spain, Italy, Greece, Turkey, the Mediterranean Sea and various North African countries were beautifully recreated in exquisite detail.

As impressive as it looked, Illya knew better then to let it have any effect on her. Rather than something to be impressed by, it was something that pointed at Bianchi's weakness: he needed something that detailed in order to properly perform his magics. Lucretia had managed excellent results with just a regular atlas as requisite.

"Well then. Let us try to track down the 'presence' of Melqart you witnessed." Bianchi picked up a beaker containing a brown powder. "This powder was made by grinding up fragments of a jar recently unearthed from the ruins of the ancient Phoenician home port of Tyre."

The powder was poured from the beaker onto the model and it landed exactly on the south side of Sardinia – the location equivalent to Cagliari, Illya and Erica's current position. Then the powder began to move on its own. Slithering over the model like a snake, it rushed towards the Mediterranean Sea, heading east. An even bigger island than Sardinia lay in that direction.

"The island of Sicily? Melqart went to Sicily?" Erica mused, not entirely surprised as Lucretia's earlier prediction placed the Heretic God between Sardinia and Sicily.

"Looks like it. The Phoenician's sphere of influence not only includes Sardinia but Sicily as well. Perhaps in search of his identity, Melqart seeks the root of his existence by moving to a sacred domain closer to his homeland." Bianchi nodded. "So that's that. But actually, I also prepared something else." He picked up a test tube containing a small amount of white powder. "This powder was made from shavings of a stone tablet unearthed from Zoroastrian temple ruins dating back to the Sassanid Empire of Persia. It was prepared for tracking down the 'presence' of the war god of victory, Verethragna."

Reversing the test tube, the white powder was poured onto the model. Even though it landed in the middle of the Italian mainland, the white powder began to move on its own and crossed the sea, slithering towards Cagliari, on the south side of Sardinia.

"Erica... If the Verethragna was really killed by Melqart as you claimed, this powder should have vanished instead. However, its current state is obvious." Bianchi smiled smugly. "Based on the physiognomy, Verethragna died by a human's hand. Consequently, the warlord's authority was usurped, and the new owner is currently in Cagliari. Most likely, that person is you!" Saying that, the pretentious man glared straight at Illya.

All was silent for a few seconds before Illya snorted in amusement.

"I was right, pay up Erica." She smiled teasingly at the Italian blonde.

"Tsk, I should have known better then to bet against a Campione. You have the devil's luck." Erica sighed. "I'll buy you dinner, that sound fair?"

"Sure." Illya readily agreed. "Still, I didn't expect him to be this big of a drama queen." She admitted, earning a twitch from the aforementioned drama queen.

"So even if this were the truth, what problems would it pose?" Erica declared with absolute elegance and fearlessness. "If Illyasviel von Einzbern is a Campione, the first thing you must do is bow down to the new King and express congratulations to her ascension to the throne, offering your utmost fear and respect."

"Yes. Indeed, that is correct." Bianchi smiled wryly. "I've had this notion for a very long time. Indeed, Campione are those who have slain gods. However, do you really believe they are all worthy of being Kings? Our king – Salvatore Doni is a perfect example. Who could believe he is such a great idiot, an utter moron!"

"I will thank you not to compare me to that idiot." Illya grumbled in annoyance.

"Sir Salvatore is one of a kind. You can't really generalize from one example." Erica added.

"Only the sword. He is a man who has utterly no merit in anything other than the sword, right? Even if it is said that no number of spells will work, provided we have the intent – don't you think that we are able to do it?" Bianchi asked.

"Are you actually talking about defeating a Campione?" Erica asked incredulously.

"Correct. Just as they have slain gods, we too, can defeat Devil Kings. At least, when my opponent is an inexperienced Campione who is full of openings!" Bianchi declared with absolute confidence and stared at Illya once more. "My mastery of physiognomy is not limited to the essence of the earth. This girl possesses no magical aura whatsoever even after usurping a god's power. I am certain she has no history of magic amongst her ancestors. Neither does she have any martial arts training nor experience on the battlefield. Usurping a god's authority is merely pearls before swine for her."

Rather than lash out as she would normally do, Illya merely narrowed her eyes and bit her tongue.

" _Come on you imbecile, finish your bloody monologue already and get to the point where I can kick your ass and call it self-defense."_ Illya mentally grumbled.

"For the purpose of proving my theory that kings are not absolute conquerors, isn't it great that an opponent has fallen into my grasp? Hmph, kindly do humor my little wish!" Bianchi's glare gradually intensified.

"David Bianchi... I once considered you barely a first-rate mage, but apparently, I was wrong. You are merely half of that and more than likely, you'll never progress beyond this foundation." Erica spoke acidly. "Such naive notions, surely must have crossed the minds of how many thousands of magi? As expected of a man who pretends to be some sort of master inhabiting a corner of a place like Sardinia, such shallow thinking is only fitting." She sniffed in disgust. "Within prestigious associations like my Copper Black Cross, in order to eliminate this kind of misconception and impress upon members the overwhelming power of the kings – or rather, ridiculous creatures for whom common logic does not apply, we would use anecdotes of past kings as teaching materials for a thorough education." Erica burst into a smile. "But clearly you did not have this opportunity. Even though I agree with your assessment of Sir Salvatore as an idiot, I thoroughly despise your notion of 'possibly defeating them'. This sort of delusional dream should be saved for your eternal slumber beneath a grave!" she declared mockingly.

"Hmph; truly the words of one who hails from a prestigious family that wags their tail at kings. But you are ill-advised to forget one fact. This place is my mansion, and to you, it is enemy territory: Prepare to die!" Bianchi called out and the floor beneath Erica transformed amorphously, manifesting into a sharp and massive conical shape, extending upwards and flying as fast as an arrow.

However, Erica lightly took a step backwards to evade the surprise attack from below.

" _ **Knowest that thou art no immortal god, rememberest thy mortality as a son of man!"**_ Bianchi yelled out again and the house began to shake and rumble noisily.

'Darkness' was hanging all around Erica. A dark mist had suddenly appeared, pervading Erica's surroundings, enveloping the blonde maiden like a black cloud obscuring the shining moon!

Illya instantly understood that this was dangerous magic, the kind meant to kill and quickly checked on the blonds with _**Tracing**_ to check if she was alright, and sure enough she was prepared for it.

" _ **For the sake of maintaining order in Rome, the Senate decreed the suspension of imperium! O Steel of the Lion, layest thyself down as the foundation!"**_ Erica recited the incantation, summoning her sword, Cuore di Leone, which then transformed into a chain with ten silver links, forming a ring around her body that emitted a barrier that kept the 'Darkness' at bay. _**"Senatus consultum ultimum, hereby decreed!"**_ she finished. "How's that? A protective barrier erected from the magic sword Cuore di Leone and _**Senatus consultum ultimum**_ , do you have any way of breaching it?" Erica taunted.

"Probably not. But with that, you cannot attack either." Bianchi's lips displayed a twisted smile in response to Erica's challenge. "A protective barrier erected using the spell of _**Senatus consultum ultimum**_ is equivalent to a castle in durability. However, the spell caster cannot take a single step out of its confines. Isn't that nice? While you protect yourself, you will be unable to guard this new Campione girl here."

"You seem to be under the impression that I need Erica's protection from weak spells like yours." Illya chuckled before her smile became rather dark. "Though if your little party trick as much as scratch Erica, I will have you torn limb from limb."

Gulping, Bianchi put on a brave face and directed the 'Darkness' towards Illya… where it died out into nothing as soon as it entered her personal space.

Grimacing at his mistake – wasting the spell that was keeping the Great Knight occupied – Bianchi tried something else.

" _ **Oh Forest!"**_ he called out and the wall behind him became a portal of some sort to a tropical area. _**"Tiger! Using those immortal claws and eyes, your terror shall create balance!"**_ he chanted and from there emerged a handful of magical beasts – constructs of magical energy shaped as living creatures – tigers to be precise.

"Hoh, not bad." Illya remarked casually. "Maybe you're not _entirely_ incompetent.

"Even if magic is cast on a Campione, it will be completely deflected. It's a well-known fact." Bianchi whispered. "However, there are other avenues. Take the bones and the face for example... Because all it requires is the appearance, techniques like physiognomy were usable like earlier. Targeting a Campione's powerful divine aura, investigative magic can be used to locate them." Bianchi looked upon the five huge tigers in the room with great satisfaction. "Since objects summoned by magic can cause damage, controlling these artificial magic beasts will work – hey King, these fellows are man-eating tigers accustomed to the taste of human flesh and blood. Let's see how you handle them!"

And with that the tigers prepared to attack.

"Ber-ser-ker!" Illya called out in a sing-song voice.

Suddenly, the Servant of Madness manifested before her and with a single swing of his stone axe-sword, it ripped apart the tigers.

"W-What in the heavens it **that**!" Bianchi paled drastically.

"This is my Servant, Berserker. Say hello to the idiot that though he could kill me, Berserker." Illya said in amusement.

"▂▂▃▃▄▄▂▂▃▃▄▄▅▅▅▅ **!"** the Mad Demigod roared.

Abandoning any semblance of bravery, Bianchi turned and ran.

"Fetch that." Illya ordered quietly and a moment later Bianchi as right in front of her, being held upside-down by the Berserker.

"H-Hold on now!" Bianchi squirmed, the blood rushing to his head from being upside-down counteracting the paleness one would normally display while in Berserker's grasp.

"You know, you made quite a few assumptions." Illya remarked while gesturing to Erica that it was safe to lower her barrier. "For example, I have a few years of combat experience. Combat against Heretic Gods, to be precise. Remember that massive magical explosion in the summer nearly three years ago? Yeah, that was me killing my first God and becoming a Campione." She was distinctly pleased as Bianchi seemed to have at least _some_ idea regarding the magnitude of power involved in that event. "Secondly, my family bloodline goes back five centuries on my father's side and well over a thousand years on my mother's. And thirdly, it's not that I lack a magical aura; I'm merely concealing it." with that she removed the seal that was her earrings allowing her full magical might to be sensed… and while satisfied, she was rather disgusted by the yellow stain extending towards Bianchi's heart from his pants. "So, in light of all this, I think it is understandable while I take offense to being called swine, hm?" she smiled angelically as an orb of black and crimson magic formed at the tip of her right index finger before being shot… and nailing Bianchi right in the balls. "You may drop him, Berserker." She added, ignoring the choked whimpers of the man.

"What exactly was that spell?" Erica inquired as she kept a distance from the man and the puddle of urine he was laying in.

" _ **Gandr**_ , Scandinavian sickness curse." Illya replied with a shrug. "Does no actual damage, but it makes you feel as bad as you're experiencing a hundred periods simultaneously." She paused before adding "If it hits in a part of the body that is not overly sensitive to pain, that is."

"I… see." Erica looked rather green.

"Relax, he'll be fine… in a day or two. Meanwhile, we have other priorities than some guy with delusions of grandeur." Illya pointed out. "Berserker, make us a way out." She ordered.

"Any particular reason why you want to wreck his house? Beyond the obvious, I mean." Erica grinned.

"Well, he probably trapped it in case we tried to escape." Illya shrugged. "Besides, this is a shortcut."

"Right." Erica shook her head and followed the white-haired Campione through the Berserker-sized hole. "What is he?" she inquired softly.

"Berserker?" Illya raised an eyebrow. "He's a Servant. He's basically an artificial magical being that holds the essence of an actual person."

"Like Bianchi's tigers?" Erica pointed out.

"He's closer to a Heretic God, actually." Illya said casually. "He is, after all, Herakles."

"What." Erica stopped mid-step.

"Okay, more like a subordinate god under my control, though her didn't descend from the Realm of Immortality nor did I summon him with an Authority. Rather, I used Einzbern family magic." Illya explained.

"And… you have him under control?" Erica pressed.

"Someone once stole control over Berserker from me and tried to get him to kill me. He refused to harm me, regardless of the fact that he should have been unable to resist those absolute commands." Illya revealed.

"Oh, that's reassuring." Erica sighed and continued on before noticing something missing. "Where is he?"

"Oh, he can take astral form." Illya shrugged. "I could send him back to Japan from where I've summoned him, but he may be helpful around here."

"If you say so." Erica mused.

 _Timeskip – two days later, Panormos HQ, Palermo, Sicily_

The past couple days had been rather uneventful.

Sure, with Illya no longer holding back her magical aura it had been trivial for the representatives of Sardinia's mage associations to find her and from there she arranged for a luxurious ship to take them to Sicily, Palermo to be exact.

The only disruption during the trip had been Melqart using the storm clouds to communicate with her and reaffirming the challenge to battle, but even that had only lasted a few minutes. In truth, Illya had been tempted to call upon the **Vimana** she had gained from Heretic God Shiva – which was larger than Gilgamesh's and had space for Erica to sit in as well, despite not being so high-tech – but she had refrained, not wanting to reveal just how many gods she had slain quite yet. Besides, a few of them were more executions then actual fights.

Thus, they had taken the luxurious ferry the mages had arranged which allowed them to also have a meal and rest rather than focus on keeping the Vimana in the air.

At their arrival in Palermo, they had been welcomed by one Walter Zamparini, the Commander-in-Chief of Panormos, the local mage association that turned out to also be the Sicilian Mafia. It became rapidly apparent that the old man wanted Erica gone so he could ingratiate himself in Illya's service, using her uncle's, Paolo Blandelli's, concerns about the blonde's status as a way to drive her off.

Unfortunately for Zamparini, Illya had a certain dislike of people taking decisions without consulting her, and he had explained to him as much.

 _Flashback_

"Mister Zamparini, you seem to have misunderstood something." Illya interrupted with a serene smile.

"I did?" the old Mafioso blinked.

"Yes. You seem to be under the mistaken impression that I care about the order coming from the Copper Black Cross… or any organization for that matter." Illya stated with the same sweet smile that was, for some reason, unnerving the old man immensely.

"You… you don't?" Zamparini parroted.

"No, I do not." Illya giggled cutely. "You see, Erica has accompanied me so far because I wanted her to. Do you know why she will accompany me at least until I've dealt with Melqart?"

"B-Because you want her to?" Zamparini asked nervously.

"Exactly! See! You're catching on." Illya smiled approvingly. "But, of course, as the youngest Campione I may at times make decisions that upset other people for some reason. So, any such complaints that don't come directly from Heretic Gods and my fellow Campione can be taken to my good friend Berserker."

At this, the black giant radiating death manifested right behind Illya.

"▂▂▃▃▄▄▅▅ **!"**

"Would you like to file a complaint to him right now?" Illya tilted her head.

"N-No, I believe I shall bow to your wisdom, your majesty." Zamparini said faintly.

"Excellent!" Illya cheered and Berserker Astralized once more. "Now then, how about a tour of Palermo. But do send word ahead to have your people keep an eye out for Melqart."

 _Flashback end_

Currently, it was morning and Illya's chest was once again acting as a pillow for Erica, both of them once again nude after their nightly activities. If Zamparini or his staff had any thoughts regarding the sleeping arrangements, the early introduction of Berserker had ensured they kept those thoughts to themselves.

"You know… I never thought I would become a lesbian." Erica commented.

"Are you really?" Illya mused. "Don't you find men attractive as well?"

"Well… yes…" Erica hesitated.

"I think that makes you a bisexual, just like me." Illya pointed out.

"Do you… have male lovers?" Erica inquired.

"No. Tried dating a guy about a year ago and didn't exactly work out, but not because I did not find him attractive." Illya admitted. "I do have a few female lovers…"

"I… see…" Erica deflated slightly.

"Though you're the first full human amongst them." Illya continued."

"…What are they?" Erica inquired.

"Well, Kuro and Tamamo are Servants like Berserker, but they aren't mad like him." Illya smiled. "And then there are my maids…"

"Maids?" Erica blinked.

"They're nymphs." Illya revealed.

"Oh." Erica understood. "Still… what exactly are Servants?"

"They are spirits of humans, part humans, gods and monsters that have been summoned and contained into a human form; it's a state somewhere between ghost and living. They are not from the Realm of Immortality though, so you don't need to worry about them becoming Heretic Gods even if they have an equivalent there." Illya explained in simple terms.

"Where are they from then?" Erica frowned.

"Hm, you know how above the Living World is the Netherworld, the so-called Boundary of Life and Immortality, and beyond that is the Realm of Immortality?" Illya asked.

"Yes." Erica nodded. It was common knowledge amongst mages.

"Well, the Throne of Heroes exists within the Root which is beyond the Realm of Immortality, outside all worlds to be exact." Illya shrugged.

"Beyond… the Realm of Immortality?" Erica asked slowly.

"Yes. Of course, just like with Heretic Gods, they are merely a small fragment of the essence that exists in the Throne of Heroes, enough to fit in the Servant container of the chosen Class." Illya spoke.

"Class?" Erica asked curiously. "Such as the 'Berserker' Class?"

"Yep! There are Sabers that are sword users, Lancers that are spear users, Archers which are bow users or simply range fighters, Riders which fight while riding their mounts, Casters which are magic users, Assassin's which… well, assassinate, and Berserkers which sacrifice some or all their sanity for a power boost." Illya explained.

"And these Kuro and Tamamo are…?" Erica asked curiously.

"Kuro, or formally Chloe von Einzbern, is of the Archer Class which Tamamo no Mae is of the Caster Class." Illya replied.

"…I'll ignore the fact that you have another God as a Servant for now… but… Chloe von Einzbern?" Erica twitched.

"In a different world, she was the twin sister of Illyasviel von Einzbern and eventually became famous enough to be granted a place in the Throne of Heroes." Illya explained. "Hence while I call her my sorta-twin sister. On another note, please keep all the information on Servants to yourself."

"Oh, don't want someone else to summon one as well?" Erica guessed while at the same time deciding to follow her request.

"Not really, the kind of power required to prepare the summoning without decades of preparation is beyond even the Campione, and even then, they are more than likely to mess up and summon a Heretic God." Illya snorted.

"…I think you underestimate how much magical power Campione possess." Erica delicately remarked.

"I heard that Voban, the oldest Campione, needed over a hundred Hime-Miko to summon one Heretic God." Illya pointed out. "Meanwhile, I summoned two Heretic Gods – by accident, mind you – and two Servants in the same day and could still do it again. No, Erica, it's you who misunderstand my power. I had more magical power before becoming a Campione then nearly all of the other six put together and even I had to struggle summoning and maintaining Berserker back then without help. Now? I will never have to worry about running out of magic power, merely about how much my body can handle releasing in a short period of time."

At this, Erica was rendered speechless for a few good minutes.

"H-How? How could you have so much power even becoming a Campione?" she asked in disbelief.

"I was experimented on." Illya said flatly.

"What?" Erica exclaimed, turning to look at Illya in concern.

"Ever since I lost my parents at a young age, the Einzbern experimented on me to increase my magical power, having in mind the advancement of the family craft." Illya said rather emotionlessly. "Of course, it came at a price: it shortened my lifespan. By the time I was put in the position to fight that evil god, I only had about a year to live."

"But you're fine now, right?" Erica demanded.

"Yes, Pandora fixed my body up… or rather made me a new body." Illya tilted her head. "I don't think there was anything left of my old one."

"Good. That… good." Erica sighed in relief as she rested her head against Illya's chest once more.

"Say, Erica… what do you plan on doing after this mess with Melqart is over?" Illya inquired.

"Well… as much as I keep putting it off, I will have to return home and report to my uncle Paolo." Erica remarked wryly. "Otherwise he might do something rash." She chuckled. "What about you?"

"Well… have you gone to school?" Illya asked.

"No, I was home-schooled by tutors." Erica admitted.

"Same. And since I spent most of my life before becoming a Campione in the Einzbern castle, I was… pretty isolated." Illya admitted. "So, I want to try going to high-school. Kuro kept bugging me that the high-school experience is worth the effort, and I do need to socialize with people closer to my age."

"Hm, that sounds interesting." Erica mused.

"Of course, this won't change that when a Heretic God shows up I'll go and deal with it, but Kuro told me it's best to have some semblance of a normal life as well. To keep me balanced." Illya explained.

"Well, considering what your kin are like… she may have the right idea." Erica chuckled nervously.

"Say, after you report to your uncle… what are you going to do?" Illya inquired.

"I… don't know." Erica muttered. "I'm hoping to inherit my uncles title of **Diavolo Rosso** , but after that…"

"What do you _want_ to do?" Illya pointed out.

"I…" Erica hesitated. "I want to go on an adventure. To travel around, defeat evil mages and divine beasts, like a knight is supposed to."

"That sounds pretty much what I had in mind to do outside school." Illya admitted. "Want to tag along with me?"

"Tag along?" Erica blinked.

"Go around the world, hunting Heretic Gods and Divine Beasts, evil cults and the like." Illya explained. "Maybe meet the other Campione and see what they are like…"

"And by that you mean fight them." Erica smiled.

"But of course! Otherwise it would be boring." Illya pouted.

"Of course." Erica rolled her eyes. "But… would you even need me around? I saw what you can do, Illya. And with your Servants, you have all the backup you could need." She pointed out no matter how much it hurt her pride.

"Erica… you don't keep friends around because you have some use for them… you keep them because you want to be around them." Illya spoke sagely.

"…You picked that up from some shoujo anime, didn't you?" Erica gave her the gimlet eye.

"…Yeah, but it's true, isn't it?" Illya insisted.

"… I wish I could come with you… but it might not be that easy…" Erica bit her lip.

"If it comes down to it, I can just pretend to kidnap you and tell the rest of the world to deal with it." Illya pointed out.

"That's a little extreme." Erica chuckled nervously.

"I'm a Campione." Illya reminded her. "I'm the human definition of extreme."

Before Erica could comment on that, a knock was heart from the door with the maid beyond it informing them that Melqart had been located.

A few hours later, they were approaching Soluntum, once a front-line outpost of the ancient Phoenicians and now a district of ruins, via a white BMW driven by Zamparini, with Illya and Erica in the back seats. There was also a black attaché case on the passenger seat next to the driver.

"Say, what kind of magic do you use, Mr. Zamparini?" Illya asked curiously.

"Flame magic, your highness, via guns and ammunition. Would you care to take a look?" he gestured at the black case.

Opening it, Illya found a sleek black submachine gun.

"Thompson M1921 AKA the Tommy Gun. Got to love the classics." Illya grinned as she used _**Tracing**_ on the weapon and bullets. "Hm, not a bad design but it's quite wasteful… you can barely use 25% of the energy you put in it… let's see…" she muttered as she focused some prana and used her Wishcraft to alter the weapon. "There we go." She nodded in satisfaction after examining it once more.

"What exactly did you do?" Erica inquired and they could tell they had Zamparini's full attention as well.

"I altered the power distribution to allow more magic to be concentrated in each bullet, which would have been otherwise wasted. The bullets can handle it, I checked that first. And I also added an enchantment to convert the extra heat that comes from repeated firing into additional thrust for the bullets, so the more you keep firing it, the faster the bullets, though I made sure they won't get as fast as to hit the ones fired before themselves if you're shooting in a straight line." Illya explained.

"That's… amazing. Thank you, your highness!" Zamparini smiled gratefully.

"My pleasure. Now about Melqart, let's go over what we know about him one last time." Illya mused.

"Well, other than the Phoenician God Melqart, he is also identified with the names Baal, Baal Hadad and Beelzebub." Erica began.

"The demon of gluttony, right." Illya mused. "A Prince of Hell, to be exact." She muttered as her eyes glowed golden, using **Supreme Knowledge** that she had gained from Heretic Goddess Tamamo no Mae to access the Memories of the Void.

It was a very useful Authority, allowing her to gain tons of information on various subjects, including Heretic Gods, however it had the limitations of being available only once every eight days for only eight minutes at a random time during the first eight hours after sunrise at Illya's location – thus, with her occasionally sleeping in, she at times missed it entirely.

Another limitation was that it required the exact name of the subject she sought knowledge of and would not only not give any information if what she was asking for and what she actually wanted did not match, but it would also seal itself immediately until the next window in eight days.

This time, she had the right names and her focus was clear, so all relevant knowledge of Melqart and his origins poured into her mind. And with it, she felt something within her reacting, specifically the **Warrior** incarnations she had just gained from Verethragna days before.

" _Right, the efficiency of the_ _ **Golden Sword**_ _depends on the knowledge of its target imbued in it."_ she remembered how frustrated Verethragna was with **Excalibur** which he did not recognize. _"Why is that? Saber's sword is said to be something anyone should be able to recognize. Maybe it looks different in this world… yeah, that must be it."_

"Are you okay, Illya? You blanked out there?" Illya waved a hand before her eyes.

"Hm? Oh, I was just considering which Authorities to use on Melqart." Illya spoke up. "I'm thinking Verethragna's **Warrior** Authority would be effective – we've already seen it wound Melqart gravely – but he'll be expecting it and knows its limitations. So, I'll have to keep it in reserve until the right moment."

"We have arrived." Zamparini spoke up, drawing their attention outside the car to the ruins around them.

"Alright, here's the plan." Illya began as she stepped out of the car. "Mr. Zamparini, I want you to drive back a distance and prepare to give ranged support if I signal you."

"As you wish, your highness." The man nodded and got back into the car before pulling it in reverse.

"What about me?" Erica inquired. "Should I remain with you?"

"No, you should find a good viewing spot. If I need your help urgently enough, I'll either teleport you to my location or vice-versa. Otherwise, I need you to be my extra pair of eyes and give me a signal if it looks like I'm missing something important." Illya explained. "Also, if he sends attacks or minions your way, I want you to get you of here if you're not absolutely sure you can take them down."

"Very well…" Erica hesitated.

"I'll be fine. I have extra lives, remember?" Illya grinned.

"Alright, but be safe." Erica leaned and gave Illya kiss on the lips before running off.

Advancing slowly through the ruins, Illya spoke up.

"How long will you remain silent? I know you're there, Melqart." Illya remarked.

" **So, you have noticed me, child of Pandora. Very well, let out battle commence!"** Melqart declared as she appeared before her in all his gigantic glory.

The sky rumbled with thunder and was lit by lightning before with a booming sound hundreds of large lightning bolts descended upon the white-haired girl.

On her part, Illya instantly activated the **Raptor** she had just usurped from Verethragna and dodged before heading straight to Melqart's position while at the same time grasping the hilt of **Excalibur** which was at the moment under the cover of **Invisible Air**.

Melqart did not seem willing to engage her in direct combat just yet and dispersed into wind.

"Come on Melqart, fight me!" Illya taunted. "Or are you a coward?"

" **You dare?!"** the sky rumbled. **"I am the Divine King! If you wish to measure your power against mine, you will first have to best mine underlings!"**

With that declaration, the earth began to rumble and glow with malevolent crimson light and from it emerged demons; tens, hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands!

" _This must be his Authority as the Prince of Hell. He can summon 72 legions of lesser demons."_ Illya gritted her teeth in frustration. She had been expecting a difficult and dangerous battle, but she was hoping it to be one that did not span outside the Soluntum ruins. Without another thought, she summoned both Erica and Zamparini before her.

"Illya? What…?" Erica began.

"The entire region will become a battlefield; I'm sending you both back to Palermo." Illya said succinctly before teleporting them away with **Far-Reach**.

" **Admirable, you look after the well-being of your subjects."** Melqart commented. **"But kindness will not help you here, child!"**

"Okay, first of all: I may look like this, but I'm actually over twenty." Illya spoke up. "And secondly, I have plenty of help coming!" she declared before chanting. _**"My children, hear my call and come to fight by my side!"**_ she activated Tamamo no Mae's **Mother of Monsters** Authority, causing nine furry crimson fox tails to momentarily sprout from her tailbone before dispersing into a million crimson hairs that spread out behind Illya, from each of them emerging a youkai as soon as they hit the ground. **"Charge! Leave none alive!"** Illya screamed triggering the start of battle between the two armies.

It was obvious, however, that Illya held the advantage, what with nearly three times as many troops, Melqart intervened and a dark cloud emerged from the sea.

At first, Illya believed it to be some effect of his control over storms, but as it approached to shore she heard the buzzing sound and understood what it was: Plague of Locusts, an aspect of the **Lord of Flies** Authority of Beelzebub.

" _ **As I have banished the Stymphalian Birds, so will I banish other menaces of the sky!"**_ Illya chanted causing an irritating rattle to begin sounding through the entire battlefield causing the arriving locusts to act erratically, unable to descend on their earth-bound victims-to-be.

Growling in frustration, Melqart manifested himself at the edge of the battlefield where he opened his giant maw wide.

" _ **Septem Peccata: Gula!"**_ the Divine King roared and suddenly his mouth became a funnel into which everything began to be sucked.

Watching in shock as not only her youkai but also Melqart's own demons and locusts were being devoured, Illya at first did not notice it but soon enough realized the effect applied to her as well. Furthermore, she seemed unable to escape it even with **Far-Reach**.

" _A trap Authority. Not surprising, I suppose, but what can I do now?"_ Illya grimaced, idly noticing that Melqart was growing more and more as he devoured the troops. _"I could probably attack him from the inside – my magic resistance should ensure my power does not get added to his immediately, but that would be really gross! But since I can't escape this on my own, I guess I'll have to make him end it himself."_ She decided as she dismissed the hidden **Excalibur**.

Instead, she reached into the **Gate of Babylon** and drew a specific sword. It was a 50 cm long bladed sword, reminiscent of Sasaki Kojirou's **Monohoshi Zao** but only about a third of the original's size. In addition, the Hamon / blade pattern appeared to be made of some sort of clear white crystal – that is, of course, until Illya's hand wrapped around the handle. At the point, the Hamon began glowing with kaleidoscopic light.

It was something she had worked on with EMIYA for over a year before they had actual positive results and it took them six months further to complete the project. The premise was simple: the **Monohoshi Zao** made use of the Multi-Dimensional Refraction Phenomenon when executing the **Hiken: Tsubame-Gaeshi**. The **Tsubame-Gaeshi** essentially turned one single slash into three identical ones regardless that the other two came from different directions to strike the target.

Simply having the sword did not help her much. They had discovered early on that the _**Traced**_ weapons the two Fakers passed into Illya's ownership to be stored into the **Gate of Babylon** became recognized, after a few days or weeks, as Illya's own, allowing her to use them just as well as the two Fakers unless the Noble Phantasms had certain activation requirements other than being possessed by a certain Heroic Spirit. For example, there were more than a few that simply would not work for a woman, requiring to be wielded by a man – leading to them becoming prime ammunition material.

But the **Monohoshi Zao** itself was not a Noble Phantasm. The Noble Phantasm – or an equivalent of it – was the **Tsubame-Gaeshi** which the two Fakers could use via sympathizing with the sword's accumulated experience. Illya could not do that. Oh, she was certainly better than anyone else other than the two, but better did not equate good enough. At best, she could manage to make a second blade manifest… once every 250 slashes.

As such, she sought a different path to achieving the same effect. And the path was obvious, even if simple had no place in its description: The **Kaleidoscope**. Specifically, the only shard of it she had readily available, the **Jeweled Sword of Zelretch** that either of the Fakers could Trace for her, the use of a Command Seal ensuring they did so better than ever.

Thus, she and EMIYA worked hard to imbue the **Monohoshi Zao** itself with the power of the Kaleidoscope, to inscribe the very concept of Multi-Dimensional Refraction Phenomenon into it. They tried it with **Alteration** , they tried it with Wishcraft-enforced **Alteration** , they tried it with **God Forge** , they tried it with Wishcraft-enforced **God Forge** , and eventually they tried it with Wishcraft-enforced **Alteration** through **God Forge** , using a **Monohoshi Zao** , a **Jeweled Sword** , an ingot of Mithril, one of Orichalcum and a gemstone filled with True Ether as the regents. With that final attempt, they succeeded to a degree and six months of further experimentation led to the creation of the very sword Illya was now holding, the **Prisma Hien,** the **Prisma Flying Swallow**.

The way it now functioned, any slash she made that carried prana activated the replicated **Tsubame-Gaeshi** , multiplying it by three.

As she drew closer and closer to the increasingly large Melqart, Illya first activated the **Giant Slayer** Authority that she had gained from Heretic God Gilgamesh that she accidentally summoned when trying to get the Heroic Spirit variant. This Authority allowed her to deliver ten times as much damage to enemies that were of gigantic size, like Melqart. Then… then she tapped into something that would deliver some serious damage.

" _ **Tsubame-Gaeshi – Nine Lives: The Shooting Hundred Heads!"**_ she roared as she swung the sword releasing three ethereal prismatic blades that then turned golden and each split into a hundred, raining down on Melqart's body, ripping him apart.

Landing easily now that the funnel effect had ended, Illya dismissed the **Prisma** **Hien** back into the **Gate of Babylon** and began walking away. Before she got too far, however she paused mid-step and uttered three words.

" _ **Bindings of Snow."**_

With that, snow manifested and poured in the direction her right index finger was pointing at, compressing into icy shackles for a more human-sized Melqart who was suddenly no longer hidden by the winds that seemed to imitate **Invisible Air**.

"Nice try." Illya smiled faintly "I almost thought you ran away when I didn't receive a new authority. Is this how you survived Verethragna as well?"

" **Unhand me, child!"** Melqart roared as the ice began to crackle and shatter.

"No, I don't think I will." Illya smirked. _**"Chains of Heaven."**_ She said and from the golden portals of the **Gate of Babylon** the god-binding chains erupted and wrapped tightly around the Phoenician Heretic God, stilling his movements.

" **T-This is…!"** Melqart exclaimed in shock.

"The chains that bound the Bull of Heaven." Illya finished the sentence. "They go pretty nice with the shiny new sword I got from Verethragna, don't they?" she remarked as she held her hand out to grasp a sword that was not yet there. _**"Sword, shine with brilliance for the sake of my victory and justice!"**_ she chanted, activating the **Warrior** Authority and summoning Verethragna's **Golden Sword** in her hand, already prepared to sever Melqart's divinity.

" **NO!"** Melqart roared as his struggles began anew.

Illya was not in the least worried. With the **Chains of Heaven** binding him, he could not call on any of his Authorities and as for brute strength, well, as a Divine King-class Heretic God his divinity was higher than the average and thus the **Chains** were stronger also.

Instead, Illya focused on what she had felt earlier, the resonance between **Excalibur** and the **Golden Sword** , and summoned Saber's blade in her free hand.

" _Of course. How could the_ _ **Sword of Promised Victory**_ **not** _resonate to the_ _ **Golden Sword**_ _of the God of Victory when they reside within the same body."_ Illya realized. _"In that case…"_ she brought the swords together and in a flash of golden light they became one, specifically a katana which was the type of sword she had found easiest to wield amongst all those EMIYA and Kuro had _**Traced**_ for her. Analyzing it, she was satisfied to discover it carried the power of **Excalibur** and the divinity-severing ability of the **Golden Sword**.

With that, she held it above her head and began channeling her prana into the blade to form a familiar golden aura that at full charge was shaped as a massive golden blade of energy wrapped around the physical one.

" _ **EX-"**_ she took a step forward as the golden aura flared _**"CALIBUR!"**_ Illya roared as she swung the blade unleashing an increasingly wider beam of golden power that vaporized Melqart and the hill behind him.

Feeling the new powers appearing within her, Illya finaly relaxed and dismissed the merged sword before sighing in relief. Then she looked around and winced at the sheer devastation that their battle had caused. Reaching into the **Gate of Babylon** , she pulled out her iPhone that she had stored there for the duration of the battle to prevent damage and dialed Erica's number.

"Hello, Erica? I'm done here. Melqart is dead. How are things in Palermo?" Illya began.

"Well enough. The battle did not reach this far and the storm seems to be dissipating as well. Are you well? You're not injured, are you?" Erica asked.

"No, I'm fine. It's a good thing I sent you away when I had the chance. Even if you might have handled fighting against his demon army, what followed would have gotten you for sure." Illya commented.

"Why? What happened?" Erica demanded.

"Melqart's Gluttony as the Beelzebub happened." Illya deadpanned. "That bastard used an Authority that helped him swallow up not only my army but his as well, getting bigger and bigger. He almost got me as well… oh, and he swallowed Zamparini's car as well."

"I assume you prevented that somehow." Erica remarked.

"If I could not escape even with teleportation, the only option left was to attack. I blasted him to pieces but he must have turned into wind to survive it. Then tried to sneak up on me but I trapped him in turn and finished him off." Illya explained.

"I see. When are you returning?" Erica inquired.

"Now." Illya replied as she ended the call and used **Far-Reach** to teleport in front of Zamparini's house before entering as the servants and other people present bowed to her.

"Your majesty, congratulations on your victory." Zamparini greeted her.

"Thanks. Sorry about the car though, Melqart ate it." Illya shrugged.

"The Heretic God… ate my car?" the old man blinked.

"Sin of Gluttony, Beelzebub. He also swallowed up both our armies." Illya replied. "Now, can you send word to prepare lunch? I'll take a bath in the meantime. Erica, care to join me?" she asked the newly arrived blonde.

"Sure." The Great Knight smiled.

"And I will send word to the kitchens." Zamparini nodded and left.

 _Timeskip – next morning, Palermo Airport Falcone Borsellino_

"I still don't understand why you don't simply teleport back home." Erica commented. "Or do you have a limit in distance?"

"No, I don't. I simply enjoy the view above the clouds. And with the weather we're now having, it should look great." Illya explained.

"It's not just the destination that matters, but the trip as well." Lucretia Zola, who had flown over to Sicily to see Illya off, nodded in agreement. "Now don't be a stranger, Illya."

"I won't." the Seventh Godslayer smiled.

During the wait for Verethragna and Melqart to make their appearance, Illya and Lucretia had discussed and agreed to trade information on magic – or rather for Lucretia to trade with Medea and Tamamo. This way, Illya would be educated in the more interesting aspects of this world's supernatural powers that she had so far not even scratched due to not wanting to draw attention, while Lucretia learnt from some of the most famous magic-related figures in history. Not entirely an even trade, considering what Medea and Tamamo offered could not be found elsewhere, but with Lucretia allowing them full access to her library and ownership of the **Secret Tome of Prometheus** as well as permission to borrow some of her other grimoires if the situation called for it, things were balanced out.

"I'll see how things go on my end." Erica added, referring to her plan to become an emissary for the Copper Black Cross to the Seventh Campione which she planned to use as an excuse to travel around with Illya when not attending highschool together.

"And if it doesn't work, there's also Plan B." Illya shrugged, receiving a nod from the blonde.

"Ho, planning on eloping, are we?" Lucretia teased.

"That's… not entirely inaccurate." Erica admitted with a blush.

"Eh?" Lucretia blinked before grinning "Well then, be sure to drop by. I'm sure I can teach you girls a thing or two…" she purred earning a deeper blush from Erica and a small one from Illya.

"We might take you up on that." Illya mused as she gave Lucretia a wink.

Then the situation suddenly became complicated with the arrival of a familiar blond young man. He was dressed in a bright red shirt and white cotton pants. There was a Latin air of easygoing thoughtlessness about him. With a smile like the summer Mediterranean sun (or put differently, a foolish aura), he was walking over.

"It must be you. You're the seventh. Not bad, you're even younger than me back then!" he said cheerfully.

"It's been a while, Sir Salvatore... And your reason for coming to Sicily is?" Erica greeted him.

"Ah, it's been a while, you must be Ellen Ivanovic, right? Oh my, actually I was still in Argentina until a few days ago." Salvatore Doni cheerfully got her name wrong. "I was suddenly informed that a Heretic God had appeared so I hastily made my way back to Europe. But then all transportation to Sardinia was stopped due to the heavy storm. I went to Sardinia as soon as the storm calmed down. I asked the local associations many questions, about the gods that had appeared and the god who was reassembled and reportedly defeated by the seventh. It seemed a shame to return just like that, so I came over here to meet my new kin." He eyed Illya speculatively.

"Indeed. Then allow me to make introductions. This young lady, Illyasviel von Einzbern, is indeed the seventh to become king after you, the sixth. The god-slayer who slew warlord Verethragna in Sardinia and the Phoenician Divine-King Melqart at Sicily." Lucretia presented Illya. "Though apparently, she has been a Campione for close to three years now; that massive magical explosion in the sky three summers ago was her slaying her first god."

"I see. I am Salvatore Doni. Let's get along well from now on!" Doni offered his greeting.

"Likewise." Illya nodded and waited for the other shoe to drop.

"So, I've got a minor suggestion, why don't you have a duel with me?" Doni asked suddenly.

"What?" Illya asked flatly.

"Other than gods or our kin, there are no opponents we kings can fight seriously. I'm sure you'll soon find this fact troubling. So, how about a duel to commemorate our first meeting?" Doni grinned widely.

"Well, I suppose we could fight…" Illya began with a growing smile which Doni reciprocated "…some other time." She proceeded to crush his hopes and dreams. "I have a plane to catch, after all." Illya grinned before turning to the other two females, giving Lucretia a peck on the cheek and Erica a full kiss on the lips before running off towards her embarkment gate, waving over her shoulder.

 **A.N.: Here's another chapter. The Heretic Gods Illya defeated off-screen may or may not appear in flashbacks, I make no promises.**

 **Here's the Authorities Illya has that I've shown so far:**

 **King Arthur – Excalibur & Invisible Air**

 **Cú Chulainn – Gae Bolg**

 **Gilgamesh – Gate of Babylon**

 **Medusa – Cybele and Bellerophon**

 **Medea – Rule Breaker**

 **Herakles – God Hand**

 **Hassan-i-Sabbah / Demon God Shayṭān – Zabaniya: Delusional Heartbeat**

 **Angra Mainyu – Verg Avesta**

 **Hecate / Trivia – Far-Reach, Witch, Necromancer, Maker of Nymphs, Crossroad, Elixir, Herbs, Three Realms, Keys of Hades, Black Magic**

 **Hephaestus / Vulcan – God Forge, First Flame, Return to Origins, Fiery Earth, Golden Throne, Olympus Palace, Golden Net, Automaton, Divine Life-Maker, Ambrosia**

 **Hel – Changing of Seasons, Half-Dead, Garmr, Realm of Ice, Realm of Fire, Reaper, Halls of the Dead, Serpent of Malice**

 **Herakles – Nine Lives, Bull Wrestler, Ceryneian Hind, Erymanthian Boar, Pyre of Apotheosis, Bird Warder, Bindings of Snow**

 **Medea – Witch, Curse Breaker**

 **Tamamo no Mae –** **Fox Fire,** **Supreme Knowledge, Mother of Monsters**

 **Gilgamesh – Giant Slayer**

 **Qetesh – Sacred Ecstasy**

 **Shiva –** **Vimana**

 **Verethragna – Warrior, Raptor**


End file.
